Two Singaporeans and three PRs among 19 new imported Covid-19 cases

[SINGAPORE] All 19 new coronavirus cases confirmed on Sunday (Dec 20) were imported.

There were no new community cases and none from worker dormitories.

Sunday's cases take Singapore's total to 58,422.

All the new cases were among those already placed on stay-home notices or isolated on arrival in Singapore when they were tested, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sunday night.

Among them are two Singaporeans and three permanent residents who returned from the United Kingdom and India.

Of the rest, one work pass holder and one work permit holder, who both work in Singapore, had arrived from Russia and Indonesia respectively.

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There are also three long-term visit pass holders who arrived from India and a dependant's pass holder who arrived from the UK.

Another four cases are those on short-term visit passes.

Of these, one was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment. The patient was accompanied by his caregiver who also tested positive. The other two of these four cases are visiting their family members here who are Singaporeans or permanent residents.

The last four of the 19 cases are crew members of a ship which arrived from Indonesia. They had remained on the ship until they were taken to a quarantine facility as they had been identified as close contacts of an earlier case.

Only one of the 19 new cases was symptomatic.

MOH said epidemiological investigations are in progress. Meanwhile, all identified close contacts of the cases have been isolated and quarantined.

They will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that asymptomatic cases can be detected, the ministry added.

Serological tests for close contacts will also be conducted to determine if the cases could have been infected by them, MOH said.

The ministry added that the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with no new cases in the past week.

THE STRAITS TIMES