Covid-19: 15 new cases in Singapore, including 1 in the community and 5 imported

SINGAPORE - There were 15 new coronavirus cases confirmed as at Saturday noon (Sept 19), taking Singapore's total to 57,558.

They included one community case, who is a Singaporean, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday.

There were also five imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore.

More details will be announced on Saturday night.

On Friday, there were 11 new coronavirus cases confirmed - the lowest daily figure in over six months since March 12, when there were nine cases.

The sole new case in the community reported on Friday is currently unlinked.

He is a 30-year-old Singaporean man who was confirmed positive on Thursday, said MOH.

There was also one new imported case - a work permit holder who returned from India on Sept 6. She had been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore and was tested while serving her notice.

A Giant outlet at Sunshine Place in Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3 and the State Courts were added to the places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious, MOH said on Friday.

The ministry provides the list of locations that infectious Covid-19 patients visited for at least 30 minutes and the times of their visits to get those who were also at these places during the specified periods to monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

The full list of locations and times can be found on MOH's website.

The ministry has said that close contacts would have been notified already and that there is no need to avoid these places as they would have been cleaned if needed.

The remaining nine new cases announced on Friday were migrant workers staying in dormitories.

Among them, five were identified as contacts of previous cases and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during their quarantine period, MOH said.

The other four cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as rostered routine testing of workers staying in dormitories.

The Ministry of Manpower, Building and Construction Authority, Health Promotion Board and Economic Development Board said in a joint statement on Friday that about 5,700 workers who are required to undergo rostered routine testing have yet to do so, and will not be able to return to work until then.

The average number of new daily cases in the community in a week has decreased from two cases two weeks ago to one in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at fewer than one case per day in the past two weeks.

With 32 cases discharged on Friday, 57,056 have fully recovered from the disease. A total of 38 patients remain in hospital, while 407 are recuperating in community facilities. None is in intensive care.

Singapore has had 27 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 30.6 million people. More than 955,000 people have died.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.

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