44 new COVID cases in Singapore, all imported including one-year-old boy

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 44 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Monday (25 January), taking the country’s total case count to 59,352.

All cases are imported, marking the third day in a row with no new local transmissions. “Amongst the new cases today, 40 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while four were symptomatic,” said the MOH.

Amongst the 44 imported cases, four are Singaporeans and two are permanent residents who returned from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US.

One of the returning Singaporeans is a 19-year-old teenager who returned from the UK on 6 December and served her stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until 20 December.

Her swab done on 16 December was negative for COVID-19.

She is asymptomatic, and was detected when she took a COVID-19 pre-departure test on 23 January in preparation for her return to the UK.

Her test result came back positive the next day, and she was conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

“Her Ct value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load, and her serology test result has also come back positive. Given that these indicate likely past infection, we have classified the case as imported based on her travel history,” said the MOH.

The ministry added that she is likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.

Seven others are dependant’s pass holders – including a one-year-old baby boy and a five-year-old girl – who arrived from India, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Another is a long-term visit pass holder who arrived from the US, while three others are student’s pass holders who arrived from France, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan.

Six others are work pass holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Japan, Poland, and Spain.

A total of 17 cases are work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, of whom three are foreign domestic workers.

The remaining four cases are short-term visit pass holders who arrived from India to visit their relatives who are Singaporeans or PRs.

All 44 imported cases were placed on the stay-home notice upon their arrival here and were tested while serving their notices.

The MOH noted that the number of new cases in the community has increased from 10 in the week before to 13 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has decreased from four in the week before to three in the past week.

99% of total cases have recovered

With 25 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Monday, 59,066 cases – or 99.5 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 59 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, and none in the intensive care unit.

A total of 198 patients – with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive – are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 29 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

Amongst the 225 confirmed cases reported from 19 to 25 January, 123 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 34 have tested negative, and 68 serology test results are pending.

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