4 students among new Covid-19 cases; S'pore Poly completes swabbing exercise with no positive cases
SINGAPORE – There were four students among the Covid-19 cases confirmed on Monday (May 24).
Two of them are Singapore Polytechnic (SP) students from the School of Chemical & Life Sciences (CLS) and they have been linked to the Jem and Westgate cluster, said an SP spokesman on Monday.
The other two cases are students from Peicai Secondary School and Greendale Secondary School. They work part-time at a Pizza Hut in Punggol Plaza, and are linked to the McDonald’s delivery riders cluster.
The latest cases involving SP students bring the total number of Covid-19 cases from the polytechnic to eight since the first case was detected on May 15.
The two recently infected students were last on the polytechnic’s campus on May 14, and they are both Malaysian nationals who are also family members and household contacts.
The first, a Year 3 CLS student, developed symptoms in the evening of May 14 after class, but did not seek medical treatment until Wednesday (May 19), said the spokesman.
She was tested on the same day, and was confirmed as a positive case on Sunday. As she was last on campus during her infectious period, her close contacts have been placed on quarantine, said SP.
The student’s family member is a Year 2 CLS student. She developed symptoms on Tuesday (May 18) and saw a doctor the next day. She was not infectious when she was last on campus.
“We have thoroughly cleaned and disinfected the campus premises visited by the students,” said the SP spokesman.
“SP is in touch with both students to monitor their well-being and we wish them a speedy recovery.”
Last Saturday, the swabbing exercise for at least 8,500 SP students, staff and vendors were completed, and all have tested negative, said SP.
“In view of this, there are currently no plans to extend testing to the rest of the SP community,” the spokesman added. The polytechnic has more than 14,000 students and staff.
On Monday, MOH also announced that two secondary school students who work part-time at Pizza Hut Punggol Plaza have been confirmed to have Covid-19.
The 15 year-old student from Peicai Secondary School developed a cough on May 20 but did not seek medical treatment. He was tested for Covid-19 on Sunday (May 23), and it returned positive on the same day. He developed a fever on Sunday as well.
In a letter to parents seen by The Straits Times, Peicai Secondary School said since the student had not been in school for the past two weeks, MOH has determined that there is no contact tracing required among contacts within the school.
The Greendale Secondary School student is a 16-year-old who had last gone to school on May 17. He is asymptomatic, and was detected when he went to a GP clinic for a Covid-19 test on May 23 after he was encouraged to do so by his employer.
As he had been identified as a close contact of the Peicai Secondary School student, he was placed on quarantine on Sunday evening. He tested positive on Monday.
Responding to queries, a Ministry of Education spokesman said that there is no need for contact tracing for these students as they were well when they were last in school.
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