2 New Community Cases Reported on 14 Oct Are Students But They’ve Been in Quarantine since 2 Oct

Unless you’re New Zealand who managed to defeat Covid-19 twice, the coronavirus outbreak is a bit like riding a roller coaster that hasn’t undergone regular safety inspections.

One day everything seems fine and dandy, and the next day it feels like the world is going to end.

Here in Singapore, cases have been going down at a significant rate, with no local cases reported on Tuesday (13 Oct).

But just a day later, the coronavirus has given us a reminder not to be complacent.

2 New Community Cases Are Students But They’ve Been in Quarantine since 2 Oct

Two of the five new cases reported on Wednesday (14 Oct) were from the community.

Three imported cases made up the remaining infections, as there were no new cases from migrant worker dormitories.

What’s concerning is that the two community cases were Singaporeans students –  a 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl.

Fortunately, they were already under quarantine after being identified as contacts of a family member who contracted the disease.

They were both last at their respective schools on 2 Oct, the day the family member tested positive.

The family member, a 44-year-old Singaporean man, was unlinked when it was first reported.

His infection was detected as part of a programme to test all patients aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection when they first see a doctor.

The two young students actually tested negative when they were first swabbed on 3 Oct, but later developed symptoms during quarantine and subsequently tested positive on 13 Oct.

3 Imported Cases

The three imported cases reported on Tuesday are:

• a 19-year-old Singaporean woman who returned from the United Kingdom
• a 30-year-old male short-term visit pass holder from Russia who is employed in Singapore
• a 26-year-old student’s pass holder from India

As per protocol, all three cases had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore.

Number of Community Cases Still Low

The good thing is that the overall number of community cases remains low.

The average number of new community infections has gone down from one case per day in the week before to fewer than one per day in the past week.

Similarly, the number of unlinked cases has also decreased from an average of fewer than one case per day in the week before to none in the past week.

However, experts have said that expecting zero cases every day isn’t likely because of the risk of spread from imported cases.

The country needs to revive its tourism industry while keeping its citizens safe.

So we need to keep our guard up until we can find a vaccine, or cases will spike once again.