158 New Covid-19 Cases Reported Today (8 Jul); 9 Cases In The Community

After two days of over 20 community cases, it seems like we’re due for a bit of respite.

Today (8 Jul), the Ministry of Health (MOH) preliminarily reported 158 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore.

This brings the total number of cases to 45,298.

The cases include 3 imported cases and 9 cases in the community (4 Singaporeans/PRs, 5 work pass holders).

Foreign workers residing in dormitories make up a vast majority of cases.

Four Students & A Teacher Among The Community Cases Yesterday

Yesterday, MOH reported 20 community cases, out of which, 4 are students and one is a teacher.

The students are from different schools:

• Bedok View Secondary School
• East Spring Primary School
• Jurong West Primary School
• Jurong West Secondary School

The teacher is from Assumption Pathway School.

Investigations are still underway for the teacher but the students were linked to household infections and were on home quarantine.

Minister: S’pore Isn’t Having a 2nd Wave of COVID-19 Infections Yet But CB Will be Back if Needed

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said that there’s been no second wave of infections even through 9 people from an HDB block have been infected. All the households and visitors to the area have been offered COVID-19 tests, and of the 118 people who took the tests, none of them has been tested positive.

However, they were, indeed, worried that it could lead to a major cluster and therefore tested so many people there.

On the authorities’ side, they’ll do more, saying that once “we see a possible cluster forming, we will move in quickly to impose precautionary measures to break the chain of transmission.”

And his goody friend, Minister Lawrence Wong, added that Singapore cannot rule out adding more restrictions or even worse—having a Circuit Breaker again—if needed.

As of now, they still cannot establish how a household could have potentially infected another household in a block. Of course, this could be a coincidence—a bad joke made by the devil known as 2020.

Nevertheless, you shouldn’t just worry about a second wave or the lift buttons.

Instead, you should worry about your second home: your workplace.

More People Getting Infected in Workplaces During Phase Two

Before Phase Two, 22% of people were infected at their workplace.

Now, the number has increased to 36%.

Granted that it could be due to more people heading to their workplaces nowadays, this could be prevented if we can still work from home and have safe management measures in the workplace.

After all, you don’t kiss your colleagues goodbye, but you did kiss your wife goodbye.

According to the authorities, the default working mode in Phase Two should still be to work from home—that means if you can work from home, your boss shouldn’t ask you to come back.

Social Interactions Infections Double

As for infections due to social interactions, that has doubled, from 1% to 2%.

Though…we tend to wonder: how did the 1% come about in the first place since social interactions were technically banned before Phase Two?

Almost Half of Community Cases in Recent Days Could be Old Infections

If you’ve downloaded our app, you’d know about this: firstly, the virus could stay in your body after a long period and you could be tested positive, but it could be past infections and you’re no longer infectious. An antibody test could check if your infection is current or past, and if it’s a past infection, you might no longer be infectious anymore.

Might.

And here’s some goody news: most of the new community cases are people who are already isolated as they’re close contacts of a case. So even if they’re new infections, they can’t infect anyone.

As for community cases that are unlinked, 3 in 5 of them have no symptoms, and half of them tested positive for antibodies—which meant they could be old infections.

What we should worry about are cases with symptoms (i.e. current infection) and are unlinked to other cases.

Which is why you shouldn’t just read the headline of an article.

You know there are 20 community cases on 7 Jul 2020  and you might have stocked up even more toilet rolls, but did you know that of these 20 cases, 12 are close contacts of earlier cases and are already isolated?

And that for 6 July’s 23 community cases, 17 are linked to previous cases or clusters?

So do beyond reading the headlines and you’d know why we’re not having a second wave.

Yet.