Sole COVID-19 Community Case Reported on 18 Apr Has The UK Variant & Has Taken 1 Vaccine Dose

By
Megan
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It seems like there’s no letting our guard down when it comes to the coronavirus, as it hasn’t concluded its world tour yet.

Worse, it’s mutating and leaving more and more unease in its wake.

23 new COVID-19 infections were reported in Singapore on Sunday (18 Apr), among them one community case. 

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The sole community case is a sea crew member who had preliminarily tested positive for the B117 strain of the coronavirus, a variant that was first detected in the UK. 

Here’s what happened. 

Sole COVID-19 Community Case Reported on 18 Apr Has The UK Variant & Has Taken 1 Vaccine Dose

The sole community case is a 39-year-old Indonesian man who works on a bunker tanker as a sea crew member. 

According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), he is currently an unlinked case. 

He left the vessel only to go for COVID-19 testing and vaccination. 

He displayed no symptoms of the coronavirus. He took part in rostered routine testing and was tested for COVID-19 on 15 Apr, which is when he was found to have the virus. 

He tested negative in an earlier round of rostered routine testing, which took place on 1 Apr. 

His serological test result is negative, which likely points towards a current infection. 

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He has preliminarily tested positive for the B117 strain and is awaiting further corroborative tests to confirm his results. 

The man had received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on 15 Apr. 

According to MOH, it was not possible for the man to be infected as a result of the vaccination as the vaccine does not contain any live virus. 

However, they added that one can be infected just before or after vaccination as it would usually take a few weeks for someone to develop immunity after vaccination.

So this serves as a stark reminder that just because you got your vaccination, it doesn’t mean that the pandemic is over and you can rub shoulders freely with merrymakers at Zouk. 

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All close contacts of the man have been identified and quarantined. These include crew members onboard the vessel with him. 

New COVID-19 Cluster Formed is Linked to NUS Researcher 

On Saturday (17 Apr), four new community cases were reported, the highest number seen in a very long time. 

Two of these cases were linked to a researcher at the National University of Singapore (NUS), making for a new COVID-19 cluster. 

You can read more about it right here.

Featured Image: Musashi akira / Shutterstock.com

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Megan
Email: [email protected]