SINGAPORE, Dec 28 — Singapore’s Health Ministry (MOH) confirmed that one of the five imported Covid-19 cases in the republic announced Sunday is a 23-year-old Malaysian woman who served her Stay-Home Notice (SHN) at a hotel here.
The MOH said she was transferred to another dedicated facility on December 20 when the ministry commenced investigations into 13 previously reported cases who had served SHN at the same hotel between October 22 and November 11.
Labelled as case 58762, the work permit holder was swabbed on December 19 and December 21 and her test results were negative for Covid-19 infection, said the ministry in its full data released late last night.
“Her swab on December 24 at the end of SHN came back positive, and she was conveyed to the hospital the next day. A confirmatory test by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) was also positive,” it said.
However, the ministry said a second sample taken by NPHL on December 26 came back negative, and her serological test result has also come back negative.
MOH noted that investigations are ongoing to assess if she, who is asymptomatic, could be linked to the 13 cases.
The ministry on December 19 said that the 13 imported cases were observed to have high genetic similarity despite the cases having arrived from different countries, including Bahrain, Canada, Indonesia, Myanmar, Netherlands, Philippines, South Korea, UAE, UK and the US.
As of noon Sunday, the republic reported a total of five new cases, with none in the community or residing in dormitories, thus bringing the total infection here to 58,524.
The MOH has so far classified 1,742 of the reported cases as imported, 2,276 as community cases and 54,506 involving dorm residents.
— Bernama
