Sole Community Case on 12 March Had Refused to Take COVID-19 Test When Sick; Detected Only When Taking Pre-Departure Test

On 12 Mar 2021, Singapore reported 10 new COVID-19 cases.

1 is a community case while the remaining cases are imported.

In the evening of the same day, the Ministry of Health (MOH) provided more information about the new cases.

Along with that announcement is a lesson to be learnt: in this day and age of COVID-19, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Sole Community Case on 12 March Had Refused to Take COVID-19 Test When Sick; Detected Through Only When Taking Pre-Departure Test

The sole community case reported yesterday is an IT engineer who works at Deutsche Bank.

He had arrived in Singapore from India on 16 Jan 2021 and served SHN until 30 Jan 2021.

His COVID-19 test on 29 Jan 2021 returned negative.

On 1 Mar 2021, the man had developed a runny nose and went to a general practitioner clinic the same day.

When offered the COVID-19 test, however, the engineer declined to be tested.

The GP clinic then gave him five days’ MC and asked him to come back for a test if his condition persists.

He was subsequently detected on 11 Mar 2021 when his pre-departure COVID-19 test returned positive.

He was sent to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

His serological test returned positive, indicating that it’s likely a past infection.

It was added by MOH that “those who are advised by their doctor to be tested for Covid-19 should do so, even if they are showing mild symptoms.”

Details On Remaining Cases

The nine remaining cases are imported cases that were placed on SHN upon arrival in Singapore.

Two are short-term visitors from Cambodia and Indonesia who were receiving medical treatment in Singapore and returned for further treatment.

One is a student’s pass holder from Indonesia.

Two are work pass holders from Indonesia and Switzerland and the four remaining cases are work permit holders from Indonesia and the Philippines.

The work permit holders are all foreign domestic workers.

Overall Situation

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 60,080.

The number of new cases in the community has decreased from 3 cases in the week before to 2 cases in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at 2 cases per week in the past 2 weeks.

11 more cases were discharged, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 59,950.

There are 21 cases still hospitalised, with one in the ICU. 80 other cases are being cared for at community facilities.

On a separate note, for those who want to know if they’re medically-eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination, you can check out our article on MOH’s eligibility infographic here.

Feature Image: Horth Rasur / Shutterstock.com