17 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including 11 imported

Singapore

SINGAPORE has confirmed 17 new Covid-19 cases, including 11 that are imported, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Monday.

All mosques here will continue to be closed until March 26, to curb the novel coronavirus from spreading any further in religious institutions in the country.

The latest figure on the new Covid-19 cases is the highest number Singapore has reported in a single day. Among them is an 86-year-old Singaporean man, the oldest to be infected so far.

Four of the 17 confirmed patients are linked to previous ones while two are unlinked. This brings the total number of infected patients here to 243.

An earlier case, announced on Sunday, is a 30-year-old Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officer working at Sengkang Fire Station, MOH said at a press briefing.

Further investigations have also showed that one of the new cases (Case 235) is linked to three earlier cases - 144, 208 and 214. They are all contacts from the Church of Singapore (Bukit Timah branch).

Case 144 is a 58-year-old Singaporean woman who is a contact of Case 140, and is linked to the Safra Jurong cluster. She is a hairdresser in her home in Jurong West Street 74, and had attended to customers after the onset of symptoms.

Case 208 is a 26-year-old female Singapore Citizen who has no recent travel history to affected countries and regions. Prior to hospital admission, she had gone to work as a medical social worker at SGH.

Case 214 is a 29-year-old male Singapore citizen with no recent travel history to affected countries and regions. He is now in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). MOH said four more patients have been discharged; a total of 109 individuals have fully recovered.

The 134 still in hospital are mostly stable and improving, but 13 remain in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

On Sunday, Singapore announced further measures to reduce importation of novel coronavirus infections, and advised residents to defer all non-essential travel abroad to reduce their risks of contracting the virus.

Meanwhile the extension of the closure of all 70 mosques for at least another nine days was announced on Monday by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis).

This means that until next Thursday, congregational prayers such as the five daily prayers, as well as Friday prayers this week, will not be held in mosques. The mosques, however, will resume the call to prayers on Tuesday and will produce more online content to continue guiding the community.

When the mosques reopen, Muis said that it will implement enhanced measures at all mosques to limit the spread of the virus.

This includes conducting mandatory non-contact temperature-taking of all congregants, turning away those who are unwell, and requiring congregants to bring their own prayer mats.

Muis said the decision to extend the closure follows the discovery of more Singaporeans getting infected with the virus after attending a large religious gathering at a mosque on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Adjustments to the length of this closure could be made, based on updates to the virus situation.

The council had earlier stated that communal activities such as congregational prayers may expose congregants to transmission of the virus by unsuspecting infected individuals.

At least five Singaporeans who went for the gathering at a mosque in Selangor between Feb 27 and March 1 are confirmed cases, and they had visited 10 mosques here during their infectious period. THE STRAITS TIMES