9 COVID-19 Cases Today (5 Mar); All Are Imported

Well, it’s official: there are now more than 60k COVID-19 cases in Singapore.

As of 12pm today (5 March), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 9 new cases of COVID-19 infection.

All the cases are imported cases.

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 60,007.

Based on yesterday’s figures, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 4 cases in the week before to 3 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at 2 cases per week in the past 2 weeks.

Sole Community Case Reported Yesterday is Wife of a Previous Case

The only community case is an 81 year-old female Singaporean who is the spouse of a previous case, and a retiree.

She developed a fever and chills on 27 February but did not seek medical attention, and recovered on the same day.

Before you go, “Not again,” read on.

She has received her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on 26 February, and these symptoms might also have been due to the vaccination. As she had been identified as a close contact of the previous case, she was placed on quarantine on 2 March, and was tested for COVID-19 as part of our protocol to test individuals during quarantine.

Her test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day, and she was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). Her serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection.

As the vaccine does not contain live virus, she could not have been infected due to vaccination. It is possible for one to be infected just before or just after vaccination as it typically takes a few weeks for an individual to build up immunity after completing vaccination.

112 Active Cases

There are currently 24 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 1 is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

88 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19.

29 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.

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