Nine new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, all imported

[SINGAPORE] There were nine new imported coronavirus cases confirmed as of Friday noon (Dec 18). They were all placed on stay-home notices or isolated on arrival in Singapore.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said there were no community cases and none from worker's dormitories.

The latest cases take Singapore's total to 58,386.

On Thursday, there were 24 new coronavirus cases, all of which were imported.

This was the highest number of imported cases since March 28, when there were 42.

The latest cases were placed on stay-home notices or isolated on arrival in Singapore, said MOH.

There were no new community cases and none from workers' dormitories.

One of the imported cases is a crew member of a ship that arrived from Indonesia. The special pass holder did not disembark from the ship and was taken to hospital in an ambulance after he developed symptoms on Dec 10.

The imported cases include 13 Singaporeans or permanent residents who came back from Austria, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and the United Kingdom.

The remaining cases are four work pass or work permit holders who are currently employed in Singapore, five dependant's pass holders and a student's pass holder.

The work pass and work permit holders arrived from India, Indonesia and the Maldives, while the dependant's pass holders came from the United Kingdom.

MOH said the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with no new cases in the past week.

With 14 cass discharged on Thursday, 58,237 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 33 patients remained in hospital as of Thursday night, with none in intensive care, and 63 patients were still recuperating in community facilities.

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

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 74.2 million people. More than 1.6 million people have died.

THE STRAITS TIMES