Both Dorm & Community COVID-19 Cases Reported on 22 Apr Are From Active Clusters

If hide and seek were an Olympic sport, the coronavirus would win the gold medal every year.

You think it’s gone for good when it’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time.

Now, not only are we dealing with more community cases, there’s been an outbreak in a dormitory too.

As a result, two COVID-19 clusters have been formed, and they’re still growing.

Both Dorm & Community COVID-19 Cases Reported on 22 Apr Are From Active Clusters

24 new cases were reported yesterday (23 Apr), two of whom were locally-transmitted infections.

One is from the community, while the other is from a dormitory. Both cases are from active clusters.

The dormitory case is a 32-year-old Bangladeshi worker who resides at Westlite Woodlands dormitory, the site of the cluster.

He works as a construction supervisor at Prosper Environmental and Engineering and is the roommate and colleague of the 35-year-old Bangladeshi worker who was the first in the Woodlands dormitory to test positive.

Just like his roommate, the 32-year-old had also completed his vaccination before he was infected. He received his first dose on 13 March and the second dose on 3 April.

His infection was only detected because he was identified as a close contact of his roommate on 19 Apr.

On 20 Apr, the man was tested for COVID-19 during quarantine and the result came back positive the next day. He was then taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

The man is asymptomatic, however, and his earlier tests from rostered routine testing – the last on 13 Apr – had come back negative.

So, while it may seem scary that vaccinated individuals are getting infected, the vaccination is still preventing them from getting severely ill from the disease.

As the Ministry of Health (MOH) explained: “The Covid-19 vaccine is effective in preventing symptomatic disease for the vast majority of those vaccinated, but it is possible for vaccinated individuals to get infected.”

MOH said this is a reminder not to let our guard down, and shows how important safe management measures, testing, and contact tracing are in our fight against the coronavirus.

Including this man, the dormitory cluster now has a total of 19 cases.

The case from the community is an 11-year-old student at Dimensions International College, located in Kovan.

His infection is linked to his parents, a 41-year-old accountant and a 44-year-old restaurant manager, two permanent residents (PR) that previously tested positive.

The boy had been placed on quarantine on 16 Apr, when he was identified as a close contact of his mother who had tested positive.

He underwent COVID-19 tests on 17 and 19 April and both came back negative.

Then, on 21 Apr, the boy developed a fever and reported his symptoms to MOH. This time, his test result came back positive and he was taken to National University Hospital.

His infection seems to be a fresh one, as his serology test result is negative. Together with his parents and his mother’s brother-in-law, there are now four infections linked to this cluster so far.

22 Imported Cases

The remaining 22 imported cases were all from abroad and had been placed on stay-home notices upon their arrival.

They include:

• a Singaporean and two PRs who returned from India, Malaysia, and Pakistan
• 4 dependant’s pass holders who arrived from India, Sri Lanka, and UAE
• 2 student’s pass holders who came from India
• 3 work pass holders who came from India and the Maldives
• 8 work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines
• 2 short-term visit pass holders from India and Ethiopia

Spike in Community Cases

There’s a reason why the health ministry keeps reminding us to stick to the prevailing COVID-19 measures even when infections are low; because an outbreak can easily occur if we’re not careful.

The number of new community cases has surged from two in the week before to 10 in the past week.

Similarly, the number of unlinked cases in the community has also gone up from one in the week before to five in the past week.

If we want other countries to open their borders to us, we should aim to keep locally transmitted infections low.

That is unless we want to have staycations for the next decade.

Featured Image: kandl stock / Shutterstock.com