6 new imported Covid-19 cases in Singapore; sample of Royal Caribbean passenger to be retested
SINGAPORE – There were six new coronavirus cases confirmed as at Wednesday noon (Dec 9), taking Singapore’s total to 58,291.
All six were imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notice on arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).
There were no cases from workers’ dormitories and none in the community.
On Wednesday, an 83-year-old man on board Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas cruise ship was announced to have tested positive for Covid-19.
MOH said that the man’s polymerase chain reaction test sample will be retested at the National Public Health Laboratory and a second sample will be taken for confirmatory tests.
“If further tests also come back positive for Covid-19 infection, he will be included as a case in our daily case count,” the ministry added.
Epidemiological investigations and contact tracing are in progress.
All the identified close contacts of the case have been isolated and the results that have come back so far are negative.
The remaining passengers and crew will remain on board the ship until contact tracing is completed. They will only be allowed to leave the terminal at Marina Bay Cruise Centre after they have taken their mandatory Covid-19 tests.
More details on the coronavirus cases will be announced on Wednesday night.
On Tuesday, there were 12 new coronavirus cases.
All 12 cases were imported and had been placed on stay-home notice on arrival in Singapore, said MOH.
The new cases comprised one Singaporean, two permanent residents, eight work permit holders and one short-term visit pass holder.
The Singaporean, a 17-year-old girl returning from Britain, experienced the onset of symptoms on Monday and was confirmed positive on Tuesday.
The other two symptomatic cases were a 40-year-old man, who is a permanent resident; and a 30-year-old woman, a work permit holder. Both arrived here from Indonesia and experienced symptoms last Saturday and on Monday respectively.
The remaining nine cases were asymptomatic and were detected through proactive screening and surveillance, the ministry said on Tuesday.
They include the other permanent resident – a 37-year-old woman who returned from India – and seven work permit holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from Indonesia and Myanmar.
The last case – a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from Qatar – was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had returned for further treatment.
They were all tested while serving their stay-home notice at dedicated facilities.
There were no new cases in workers’ dormitories and none in the community on Tuesday.
MOH said the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of one case in the past week, which is linked to a previous case.
With eight cases discharged on Tuesday, 58,161 patients have fully recovered from the disease.
A total of 23 patients remain in hospital, with none in intensive care, while 57 patients are recuperating in community facilities.
Singapore has had 29 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 67.5 million people. More than 1.5 million people have died.
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