4 More Children Were Among the Community Cases Reported on 15 May; 7 Primary Schools Switching to HBL

Yesterday, the number of community cases reported was higher than the number of imported cases: there were 19 community cases and 12 imported cases, bringing the total to 31 cases.

Of the 19 community cases, 17 are linked to previously confirmed cases, which of course means we’re seeing larger clusters now.

4 More Children Were Among the Community Cases Reported on 15 May; 7 Primary Schools Switching to HBL

Of the 17 linked cases, 8 were linked to the Changi Airport cluster, taking the total number of cases in that cluster to a whopping 68.

5 others were linked to other clusters, with 1 of them found in the TTSH cluster and another an inmate at Changi Prison Complex.

The remaining 4 are children.

2 of them are linked to the Learning Point cluster, whereby the first case was detected after a tutor was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 12 May 2021. This means the cluster now has 9 cases.

The other 2 children are linked to the nurse who worked in Sengkang General Hospital.

With that, 7 primary schools will move to home-based learning (HBL) for the next two weeks (until 28 May, when the school holidays will then start), although none of the pupils seems to have caught the virus while in school thus far.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said it’s a precautionary measure.

The schools are:

1. Kong Hwa School
2. Palm View Primary School
3. St Andrew’s Junior School
4. St Margaret’s Primary School
5. St Stephen’s School
6. Yio Chu Kang Primary School (already on HBL)
7. Yu Neng Primary School

Yes, this means students from these schools won’t need to go back to school until 28 June.

New Education Minister explained the rationale of the move in a Facebook post:

Unlinked Cases

There are two unlinked cases reported yesterday.

The first is a 53 year-old male Singaporean who works as a personal chauffeur. He developed a sore throat on 12 May, and a fever the next day. He sought medical treatment at a General Practitioner (GP) clinic on 13 May, where he was tested for COVID-19. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day. His serology test result is negative. He has tested preliminarily positive for the B1617 variant, and is pending further confirmatory tests.

To know more about why viruses mutate to different variants, watch this video to the end:

The other is  49 year-old male Singaporean who is currently unemployed, and has received his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on 10 May. He developed a sore throat on 12 May evening, and sought medical treatment at a GP clinic the next day, where he was tested for COVID-19. His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on 14 May. His serology test result is pending.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 43 cases in the week before to 103 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 6 cases in the week before to 16 cases in the past week.

Featured Image: huntergol hp / Shutterstock.com