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The Ministry of Health announced on Dec. 10 that three more people infected with Covid-19 have tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant in Singapore.

One of them is a local case who is an airport frontline worker, while the other two were imported.

MOH said all three cases are recovering in isolation wards at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

Second possible local Omicron Covid-19 case

Case 276839 is a 38-year-old male who works as a passenger service staff at the departure gates at Changi Airport Terminal 3.

This comes a day after MOH announced that an airport frontline worker, a 24-year-old Singaporean female, tested preliminary positive for the Omicron variant (Case 276363) .

MOH said that there are no known linkages between the 38-year-old man and the 24-year-old woman, and added that both of these local cases did not interact with the three earlier cases of Omicron infections.

The 38-year-old man tested positive for Covid-19 during his weekly Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) for border frontline workers.

His polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result came back preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant.

Upon being notified of his positive test result, the 38-year-old man self-isolated at home.

Two more imported cases

The two imported cases arrived from the United Kingdom (UK) via a Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) on Dec. 8.

Case 276794

Case 276794 is a 30-year-old woman who tested negative for Covid-19 on her pre-departure test in the UK on Dec. 7, but tested positive for Covid-19 on her arrival PCR test on Dec. 9.

Due to the detection of the S-gene Target Failure, the patient was suspected of being infected by the Omicron variant on Dec. 10.

MOH said she had self isolated at her own residence before she was conveyed to NCID.

Case 276796

Case 276796 is a 26-year-old man, who tested negative for Covid-19 on his pre-departure test in the UK on Dec. 6, but tested positive for Covid-19 on his arrival PCR test on Dec. 9.

While both returnees were on the same flight, MOH said the 26 year-old male did not interact with the 30 year-old female (Case 276794).

He was also suspected of being infected by the Omicron variant on Dec. 10.

MOH said he had self-isolated at a self-sourced accommodation before he was conveyed to NCID.

MOH: Contact tracing ongoing

All three cases are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic.

MOH said that it is ringfencing the cases through contact tracing, and the National Public Health Laboratory is conducting whole genome sequencing for all three cases to confirm the variant.

All close contacts of the cases will be placed on 10-day quarantine at designated facilities and will undergo PCR tests at the start and the end of their quarantine.

All frontline airport workers, and those working in higher risk settings, are currently undergoing weekly routine testing.

Additionally, all airport workers will now be required to do daily antigen rapid tests for the next seven days.

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Top image from Changi Airport website.