35 COVID-19 Cases Today (3 Jan); All Are Imported

The rain might have finally stopped, but the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise.

Today (3 January 2021), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 35 new cases of COVID-19 infection.

All of them are imported cases.  Amongst them, 6 are Singaporeans or Singapore Permanent Residents, and 7 are foreign domestic workers.

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 58,697.

Based on yesterday’s figures, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 1 case in the week before to 10 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 1 case in the week before to 4 cases in the past week.

2 COVID-19 Community Cases in Marine Sector Might Have Broken COVID-19 Rules That Led to Infection

Authorities in Singapore are now investigating the two marine Covid-19 cases for possible infringement of Covid-19 rules.

The first case is the marine surveyor at inspection services firm Lloyd’s Register Singapore who tested positive on 29 Dec 2020.

Another is a marine service engineer at Master Systems Marine who returned positive results on 26 Dec 2020.

Both of them have reportedly consumed food provided by the crew onboard the vessels, a big no-no in this Covid-19 pandemic.

In a joint press release, the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA), Enterprise Singapore (ESG), the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that they are investigating to see if there are any breaches of Covid-19 regulations.

Consequences

For the marine service engineer detected earlier, his company, Master Systems Marine, has been stopped from sending any of their employees onboard vessels until it can prove that its employees can abide by the Covid-19 regulations.

Similarly, Lloyd’s Register Singapore has suspended all its shipboard activities and audit and will be testing all of its employees for Covid-19.

It was added that pending investigations results, further actions could be taken against the companies and individuals.

Featured Image: Rajaraman Arumugam / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purpose only)