33 COVID-19 Cases Today (7 Jan); 2 Are Community Cases

2021 didn’t exactly start well, as community cases appear to be common in Phase 3.

Today (7 January), as of 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 33 new cases of COVID-19 infection.

31 of them are imported cases. Amongst them, 7 are Singaporeans or Singapore Permanent Residents, and 12 are foreign domestic workers.

2 of them are community cases. MOH will release more information about the cases tonight.

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 58,813

Based on yesterday’s figures, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 2 cases in the week before to 12 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 2 cases in the week before to 5 cases in the past week.

1 Community Case Reported Yesterday Works in the Airport Hotel & Might Have the New Coronavirus Strain

Yesterday, Singapore reported 31 new Covid-19 cases.

29 of them are imported cases while the remaining two are unlinked community cases.

One of the community cases is a 24-year-old male Korean national holding a work permit in Singapore.

He works at Azur at Crowne Plaza Changi Airport and delivers pre-packed meals to air crew and hotel guests as part of his job.

It was clarified that he does not interact with guests at Azur.

During a pooled swab during Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) on 2 Jan, he tested positive and was tested again on 4 Jan 2021.

On the same day, he developed Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) symptoms.

On 5 Jan 2021, his test results came back positive and he was sent by ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

His serological result returned negative, indicating that he is likely suffering from a current infection.

In addition, he has also preliminarily tested positive for the B117 strain.

Tests are being conducted to confirm the Covid-19 variant.

The second community case, Case 59034, is a 31-year-old male Filipino who came to Singapore from the Philippines on 4 Dec 2020.

He served his Stay-Home-Notice (SHN) at a dedicated facility upon arrival until 18 Dec 2020.

Throughout the period, both of his Covid-19 tests, a pre-departure test and the test during his SHN, returned negative.

A work permit holder employed by the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), he tested positive for Covid-19 on 5 Jan 2021 during his pre-employment health screening.

Similar to the first Covid-19 case, his serological test returned negative, indicating that it’s likely a current infection.

He was sent to SGH via ambulance.

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