With 46 cases, Changi Airport becomes largest Covid-19 cluster in Singapore

SINGAPORE - The Changi Airport cluster has become the largest active Covid-19 cluster on Thursday (May 13) with a total of 46 cases confirmed.

The second-largest Tan Tock Seng Hospital cluster has 44 linked cases.

Of the 19 new cases linked to the airport cluster, most are airport workers or their household contacts.

They include a 52-year-old Singaporean woman who works at McDonald's at Bedok Reservoir Road, and a 20-year-old Temasek Polytechnic male student, both of whom are household members of an infected employee of Ramky Cleantech Services.

Several of the new cases reported on Thursday had also visited Changi Airport Terminal 3.

They include a 44-year-old private hire car driver with Gojek who visited Changi Airport Terminal 3 on May 6. Another is a 44-year-old homemaker who visited the same terminal on numerous occasions.

A National Parks Board landscaper, who tested positive for Covid-19 on May 8, and his wife whose test result came back positive on Tuesday were added to the Changi Airport cluster on Thursday (May 13).

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The only new linked case who is not part of the Changi Airport cluster case is a seven-year-old pupil at Yio Chu Kang Primary School. 

He is a household contact of a Sengkang General Hospital operating theatre nurse. The nurse was confirmed to have Covid-19 on Tuesday.

The pupil was last in school on Monday and developed a cough and itchy throat that night. He vomited the next day and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic and was tested for Covid-19.

As he had been identified as a close contact of the nurse, he had been placed on quarantine on the same day. His test came back positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday and his serology is pending, said MOH.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has risen from 48 in the week before to 71 in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from seven in the week before to 15 in the past week.

The four unlinked cases in the community announced on Thursday are a tutor at Learning Point, two foreign domestic workers and a homemaker.

Of the 24 new community cases, 10 have preliminarily tested positive for the B1617 variant, which was first detected in India.

There were also 10 imported cases who were placed on stay-home notice (SHN) or isolated on arrival in Singapore, said MOH.

This takes Singapore's total number of cases to 61,453, with 11 active clusters.

Paya Lebar Quarter Mall, Bedok Point, and Yio Chu Kang ActiveSG Sports Hall were among places added to the list of locations visited by Covid-19 cases while they were still infectious, MOH said on Thursday night.

Those identified as close contacts of confirmed cases would already have been notified, MOH added.

Individuals may access the SafeEntry Location Matching Self-Check service via the TraceTogether App, SingPass Mobile, or at this website to check whether they were at these locations during the specified timings, based on their own SafeEntry records.

With 23 cases discharged on Thursday, 61,014 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 150 patients remain in hospital, including three in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Another 243 patients are recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 31 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

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