Two schoolchildren among five new confirmed coronavirus cases

[SINGAPORE] A 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl are the two new Covid-19 cases in the community reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wednesday (Oct 14).

Both patients are school students and had last been at their respective schools on Oct 2. They were both quarantined from Oct 3, and were swabbed on that day but tested negative, said MOH in a statement on Wednesday night.

Both later developed symptoms during quarantine and subsequently tested positive on Oct 13.

There were no new local cases from workers' dormitories on Wednesday, said MOH. This was the second day in a row that no new cases from dormitories were reported.

On Wednesday morning, Education Minister Lawrence Wong cautioned against complacency and said that Singapore will likely see new cases.

In a Facebook post, Mr Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19, acknowledged the fatigue that has set in for the current measures but reiterated that "the virus had not been eradicated", adding that "it's still circulating in our community".

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"We still need to keep our guard up and stay very disciplined in complying with all the necessary safeguards. That's the mindset that will enable us to continue on this path of progressive re-opening in a safe and sustainable manner," he said.

Imported cases made up the remaining three of the five new coronavirus cases announced on Wednesday.

They were a Singaporean returning from the United Kingdom, one short-term visit pass holder returning from Russia and one student's pass holder returning from India.

All the imported cases were placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore. They tested positive while serving their notices at dedicated facilities.

Hi Five, an Indian Muslim food outlet in the Rochor area, was the sole new location added on Wednesday to a list of places visited by infectious Covid-19 patients.

MOH provides the list of locations that such patients visited for at least 30 minutes and the times they visited to get people who were at those places 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 the gov.sg website.

The ministry 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 necessary.

The average number of new daily cases in the community in a week has decreased from one case per day two weeks ago to fewer than one per day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has also decreased from a daily average of fewer than one case per day to none in same period.

With 12 cases discharged on Wednesday, 57,737 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 39 patients remain in hospital, with none in intensive care, while 70 are recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 28 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

THE STRAITS TIMES