3 more people test preliminarily positive for Omicron variant, including couple who dined at 4 restaurants

SINGAPORE - Three more people tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron Covid-19 variant, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wednesday (Dec 15).

All three cases are fully vaccinated and have mild or no symptoms. They are recovering in isolation wards at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

One is a 36-year-old man who travelled to Singapore via the vaccinated travel lane from the United States.

His pre-departure test in the US on Dec 6 and his on-arrival polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on Dec 8 were both negative.

However, he tested positive for Covid-19 for his supervised antigen rapid test (ART) on Dec 10. His PCR test result also came back positive on Dec 11.

His wife is the second case. The 34-year-old was placed on quarantine on Tuesday (Dec 14) as she had been identified as a close contact of her husband, and tested positive for Covid-19 on the same day. The couple had dined at four restaurants over two days — Mizuki at Ngee Ann City, Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant at Sheraton Towers Singapore, and Merci Marcel at Palais Renaissance on Dec 8, and Signs A Taste Of Vietnam Pho at Orchard Gateway on Dec 9.

"All visitors to the affected premises are advised to monitor their health closely, and minimise social interactions as far as possible, for 14 days from their date of visit or interaction. They are encouraged to see a doctor immediately if they feel unwell," said MOH in a statement.

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All customer-facing restaurant staff, as well as patrons with SafeEntry check-in and checkout timings that coincided with the period that the couple were at the restaurants, will be issued health risk warnings.

MOH will also contact them for a one-time targeted PCR testing operation.

The third case reported on Wednesday was a loading cabin assistant at Changi Airport Terminal 3, who had no contact with flight passengers.

The 54 year-old man had taken a PCR test on Dec 14 as part of rostered routine testing, and it came back positive.

"The National Public Health Laboratory is conducting whole genome sequencing for all three cases to confirm the variant and contact tracing is ongoing," said MOH.

All close contacts will be placed on a 10-day quarantine at designated facilities and undergo testing.

There are 16 confirmed Omicron cases detected in Singapore to date, of which 14 are imported cases and two are local cases who are airport passenger service staff.

There were 474 new Covid-19 infections and three deaths reported on Wednesday.

The latest deaths take the total number of Covid-19 fatalities in Singapore to 807.

The total number of cases in Singapore now stands at 274,617.