Five new cases confirmed on Sunday, all imported, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper
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Five new cases confirmed on Sunday, all imported

This article is more than 12 months old

Five new coronavirus cases were confirmed yesterday, all of which were imported.

Among the five, a 23-year-old female work permit holder had served a stay-home notice at Mandarin Orchard Singapore before she was transferred to another dedicated facility on Dec 20.

On that day, MOH commenced investigations into 13 previously reported cases who had served stay-home notices at the hotel between Oct 22 and Nov 11.

The 13 cases, which came from 10 countries, were infected by coronavirus strains with "high genetic similarity", which implied that the infections might have come from one source and could have happened in the hotel.

The Malaysian, identified yesterday as Case 58,762, was swabbed on Dec 19 and Dec 21, and her test results were negative. Her swab on Dec 24 at the end of her stay-home notice came back positive, and she was taken to a hospital the next day.

A confirmatory test by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) was also positive.

However, a second sample taken by NPHL on Saturday returned negative, and her serological test result has also come back negative.

The latter test determines if the infection was an old one.

Investigations are ongoing to determine if she could be linked to the 13 cases being investigated by MOH.

Among the four other imported cases yesterday, one is a permanent resident. The 33-year-old man had returned from Ukraine.

The remaining three are foreign domestic workers holding work permits.

They included two Indonesians aged 37 and 38, and a 48-year-old Filipino woman.

All five patients had all already been placed on stay-home notices on arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving their notices.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of one such case in the past week, who is currently unlinked. - THE STRAITS TIMES


By the numbers

5 New cases

29 Deaths

0 New case in community

8 Discharged yesterday

5 Imported cases

31 In hospital

58524 Total cases

58355 Total recovered

coronavirus