3 Unlinked Community Cases Reported on 11 May Include a Ng Teng Fong General Hospital Staff Member

By
Shawn Ambrose
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With just three community cases reported on Monday (10 May), many would have assumed that community infections would finally go down.

But nope. 

Yesterday (11 May), 13 new infections from the community were confirmed. Here are the deets.

3 Unlinked Cases; 1 is a Ng Teng Fong General Hospital Staff Member

Of the 13 community infections, three had no known links to previous cases. They are:

  • A 27-year-old Malaysian man who works as a manufacturing operator at Siltronic Singapore
  • A 50-year-old Singapore permanent resident who works as an IT support staff at Kulicke & Soffa
  • A 42-year-old Malaysian man who works as an operating theatre technician at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH)

The case that jumps out at you here is, of course, the man working at NTFGH, given that we already have one hospital cluster. And one of that is more than enough.

The man returned to Singapore on 10 January after a trip to Malaysia, and served his Stay-Home Notice (SHN) until 24 January. His test, taken on 23 January during SHN, returned negative.

He developed a cough on 21 April but did not seek medical treatment. His cough worsened, so he sought medical treatment at the hospital’s staff clinic on 10 May. He was tested for COVID-19 and it came back positive on the same day.

His Ct value was very high, which is indicative of a low viral load, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said. His serology test result has also come back positive.

MOH believes the man could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA from a past infection which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.

“However given that we are not able to definitively conclude when he had been infected, we will take all the necessary public health actions as a precautionary measure,” MOH said.

7 Cases Linked to Changi Airport Cluster

Just as our desire to travel abroad continues to grow, the cluster at Changi Airport also continues to grow.

Seven of the ten linked community cases have been linked to the Changi Airport cluster. They are:

  •  A 63 year-old male Singaporean who is employed by Ramky Cleantech Services Pte Ltd as a cleaner at Changi Airport Terminal 3
  •  A 55 year-old female Singaporean who works at M171 Gourmet Street Coffeeshop and is the wife of an aviation officer at Changi Airport Terminal 1 and Terminal 3
  • A 56 year-old male Malaysia national who is a cleaner at Kopitiam at Changi Airport Terminal 3 and Happy Hawkers at 267 Compassvale Link
  •  A 46 year-old female China national who is employed by Ramky Cleantech Services Pte Ltd as a cleaner at Robinson 77. She is a household contact of a previous case.
  • A 40 year-old male Malaysia national who is employed by Ramky Cleantech Services Pte Ltd as a premises maintenance officer at Changi Airport Terminal 3
  • A 33-year-old Singaporean woman who works as an administrative staff member at SBY Frozen Food Supply but has been working from home for the past few months. She is a family member and household contact of a previous case.
  •  A 43 year-old female China national who is employed by EM Services Pte Ltd and deployed as a housekeeper at Changi General Hospital (CGH)

The 43-year-old who works as a housekeeper at CGH was placed on quarantine on 8 May after she was identified as a household contact of a previous case—a 51-year-old female work permit holder employed by Ramky Cleantech Services who works as a cleaner at Changi Airport Terminal 3.

The 43-year-old developed a cough the next day, and reported her symptom to MOH. She was tested for COVID-19 and her result came back positive on 10 May.

Her serology test result is positive, indicating a past infection.

The woman completed her vaccination regimen on 10 February, having received the first dose of the vaccine on 20 January.

She has tested preliminarily positive for the B1617 strain, also known as the Indian variant, but is pending further confirmatory tests.

Remaining 3 Cases Linked to Past Infections

The remaining 3 community cases were linked to past infections as well. They are:

  •  A 48 year-old female Singaporean who works as a relief school library assistant. She is the spouse of a previous case.
  • A 72 year-old male Singaporean who is a family member and household contact of a previous case
  • A 54 year-old male Indonesia national who is a sea crew working on board bunker tanker MT ALLI

The 54-year-old had not disembarked from the vessel, except to be conveyed to a dedicated quarantine facility, MOH said.

After being identified as a close contact of a 39-year-old male Indonesian national who is also a sea crew on board a bunker tanker, he was placed on quarantine on 25 April.

He was tested during quarantine on 9 May and his result came back positive for COVID-19 infection. His serology test is negative, indicating a fresh infection.

12 Imported Cases

Another 12 COVID-19 cases were reported as well, all from abroad. They had all been placed on stay-home notice upon their arrival here.

They are:

  • 3 Singaporeans and 2 permanent residents who returned from India, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom
  • 1 dependant’s pass holder who came from Indonesia
  • 3 work pass holders who arrived from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka
  • 1 work permit holder who came from India
  • 2 short-term visit pass holders. One had arrived from Japan for a work project and the second from Indonesia to visit her family member.

The good news is that the number of new community infections has gone down to 40 in the past week from 63 in the week before.

However, the number of unlinked cases in the community has risen from nine in the week before to 12 in the past week.

So, unless we want a return of the circuit breaker, we should probably follow the new rules in place.

Feature Image: ZDL / Shutterstock.com

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]