Nine new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, all imported

[SINGAPORE ] There were nine new coronavirus cases confirmed as at Wednesday noon (March 17), taking Singapore's total to 60,137.

All of them were imported and had been placed on stay-home notices on arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

There were no community cases and no cases from migrant workers' dormitories.

On Tuesday, a four-year-old girl coming from Nepal was among 11 new coronavirus cases reported.

All of them were imported cases who were tested while on stay-home-notice or in isolation on arrival in Singapore.

There were no community cases or cases from workers' dormitories, MOH added.

All 11 new cases on Tuesday were asymptomatic when tested, said MOH.

They comprised five dependant's pass holders coming from India and Nepal, one student's pass holder coming from India, one work pass holder coming from Turkey, and three work permit holders arriving from Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia.

There was also a special pass holder - a 43-year-old woman who is a crew member on a vessel from the Philippines.

MOH said she had remained on board until she was brought to the hospital for abdominal pain.

It added that epidemiological investigations on these cases are ongoing, and that all their identified close contacts have been isolated and placed on quarantine.

The number of new cases in the community has decreased from four cases two weeks ago to two in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has decreased from three cases to two over the same period.

MOH also reported that among the 76 confirmed cases reported from March 10 to Tuesday, 35 cases have tested positive for their serology tests while 25 have tested negative.

Another 16 serology test results are pending.

With 10 cases discharged on Tuesday, 59,969 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 21 patients remain in hospital, with none in intensive care, while 93 are recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 30 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December 2019, has infected more than 120 million people. Over 2.6 million people have died.

THE STRAITS TIMES