Singaporean who tested negative for Covid-19 during SHN later tests positive

[SINGAPORE] There were 13 new coronavirus cases reported on Tuesday (March 23) by the Ministry of Health (MOH), including a 40-year-old Singaporean woman who had tested positive after initially testing negative for the virus.

She had been living in Austria since August 2019.

She returned to Singapore on March 2 this year, and served a stay-home-notice (SHN) at a dedicated facility until March 16, said MOH.

She tested negative for the coronavirus on arrival on March 2 and when her swab was done on March 15 during her SHN.

She later tested positive after a pre-departure test on March 20 in preparation for a trip to Indonesia.

Her test result came back positive on March 22 and she was taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

MOH said she has a low viral load and her serology test has come back positive.

It said: "Given these indicate a likely past infection, we have classified the case as imported based on her travel history.

"She is likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others."

She is asymptomatic.

The other 12 cases tested positive during their SHN periods.

They include two more Singaporeans and two permanent residents returning from India, Malaysia and the United States; one dependant's pass holder from India; one work pass holder from the US; five work permit holders from Bangladesh, India and the Philippines; and one short-term visit pass holder from the United Arab Emirates.

MOH said one of the five work permit holders is a foreign domestic worker and all are asymptomatic. These new cases bring Singapore's total to 60,221.

MOH added that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from two cases two weeks ago to none in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has also decreased from two cases to none over the same period.

With 12 cases discharged on Tuesday, 60,048 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

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

THE STRAITS TIMES