Singapore's new Covid-19 case in dormitory detected in proactive surveillance

[SINGAPORE] The lone locally transmitted coronavirus case reported on Thursday (Dec 3) was from a workers' dormitory, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement on Thursday night.

The man was asymptomatic and the infection was detected through proactive surveillance, said MOH. The Ministry added that his polymerase chain reaction test result indicated a low viral load, an indicator of the amount of virus in the body.

His close contacts at the dormitory and his workplace have been isolated and placed in quarantine.

There were nine cases in all confirmed on Thursday, bringing Singapore's total to 58,239.

The other eight cases were imported. They comprised one Singaporean, two permanent residents (PRs), two work pass holders, two short-term pass holders and a dependant's pass holder.

The Singaporean and both PRs had returned from the United States. Both work pass holders were from Nepal, while both short-term visit pass holders arrived from Indonesia. The dependant's pass holder was an 18-year-old woman coming from France.

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All eight cases were asymptomatic when tested, and all were placed on stay-home-notices on arrival in Singapore and tested, said MOH.

MOH added that the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of four new cases in the past week, all of which are unlinked.

With one more patient discharged on Thursday, 58,130 have recovered from the disease.

There are 26 patients still in hospital, with none in intensive care, and 39 are recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 29 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

THE STRAITS TIMES