RWS casino among new places visited by infectious coronavirus patients

[SINGAPORE] Resorts World Sentosa's casino was among the new places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (July 16).

Three visits were recorded at the casino, on July 4, 5 and 6, but MOH did not say whether three different patients made the visits separately or at least one patient visited the location thrice.

The Traffic Police headquarters in Ubi, Master Prata in Sembawang Shopping Centre and a Giant Express outlet in Bukit Batok East were also among the places newly added to a list of locations visited by infectious patients.

The ministry provides the list of locations and the times that infectious Covid-19 patients have visited for at least 30 minutes to get those who were at these places at specific periods to monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

The full list of locations and times can be found on MOH's website.

It has said that close contacts would already have been notified and that there is no need to avoid these places as they would have been cleaned if needed.

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MOH also said that the average number of new daily cases in the community in a week has decreased from 16 cases two weeks ago to 12 in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has decreased from the daily average of eight cases to seven over the same period.

MOH also announced 11 new community cases on Thursday. They comprised two Singaporeans, five work pass holders, two work permit holders and two dependant's pass holders.

Five of the community cases were linked to previous cases or clusters. They were all asymptomatic and detected during proactive screening.

Of these, two cases were identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had been tested during their quarantine to determine their status.

Another two cases were swabbed as part of periodic screening of workers in the construction sector. The remaining linked patient was identified during the testing of individuals working in frontline Covid-19 operations.

The remaining six community cases are currently unlinked. Of these, five cases were asymptomatic, and were detected as a result of screening of workers in essential services who are living outside dormitories.

Epidemiological investigations are being done for the remaining patient, who was swabbed under enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection when they first visit a doctor.

Four imported cases were announced on Thursday.

They include a Singaporean and a permanent resident who returned from Azerbaijan on July 4, and a Singaporean who returned from the United States on July 3.

The last imported case is a work pass holder. She arrived in Singapore from Indonesia on July 4.

All the imported patients were placed on 14-day stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving their notices, said MOH.

Migrant workers living in dormitories made up the remaining 233 cases, taking Singapore's total to 47,126.

With 268 cases discharged on Thursday, 43,242 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 146 patients remain in hospital, while 3,697 are recuperating in community facilities. None is in intensive care.

Singapore has had 27 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 14 who tested positive have died of other causes.

THE STRAITS TIMES