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COVID-19: Singapore reports 178 new cases including 1 Singaporean who works at SHATEC

A couple wearing face masks seen walking outside Parliament House on Monday (27 January). (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)
A couple wearing face masks seen walking outside Parliament House. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 178 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday afternoon (12 July), bringing the total to 45,961.

Of the total, one is an imported case, another is a Singaporean case in the community and the remaining 176 are foreign workers residing in dormitories.

The imported case is a Singapore permanent resident who returned to Singapore from India on 6 July. The 37-year-old woman had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving SHN. She is a close contact of two previous cases.

The community case had been detected as a result of community testing of all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection at first presentation to a doctor. The 67-year-old Singaporean is a non-teaching staff member at SHATEC.

Investigations into the case are in progress. All the identified close contacts of the case have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period in order to detect asymptomatic cases. His household contacts will undergo serological tests to see if he could have been infected by them.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of 10 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 16 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased, from an average of five cases per day in the week before, to an average of eight per day in the past week.

Recovered cases

With 259 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Sunday, 42,285 cases – 92 per cent of the total tally – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 182 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while one is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 3,468 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 26 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 14 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, including the 48-year-old male Indian national, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

“Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count,” said the MOH in previous press releases, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.

As of 29 June, the ministry has conducted 757,746 swab tests, of which 414,396 were done on unique individuals. This translates to around 132,900 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and about 72,700 unique individuals swabbed per 1 million total population.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Manpower said in a media release that 384 more dormitories have been cleared of COVID-19 with effect from Tuesday (7 July).

These comprise one purpose-built dormitory, 345 factory-converted dormitories and 38 construction temporary quarters. In addition, 23 blocks for recovered workers in 5 purpose-built dormitories have been cleared.

This takes the total number to 625 dormitories and 44 blocks for recovered workers in 17 purpose-built dormitories cleared of COVID-19.

Singapore entered Phase 2 of its reopening – with various safe distancing measures still in place – on 19 June. This phase is expected to last up to six months or longer, according to authorities.

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