An Imported COVID-19 Case Had Not Reported His Symptom on Last Day of SHN & Had Gone Home

What do you do when you’re not feeling well?

Before 2020, when you could still sneeze on strangers’ faces for fun, the answer would likely be “self-medicate lor”.

But things are very different now.

Nowadays, if you have a symptom like a sore throat or cough, it could mean you’re carrying a deadly virus that could easily be passed on to others.

Knowing this, most people would surely seek medical attention immediately, right?

Nope.

An Imported COVID-19 Case Had Not Reported His Symptom on Last Day of SHN & Had Gone Home

On Saturday (27 Mar), 23 new COVID-19 cases were reported, 22 of whom were imported.

Among the imported cases was a Singaporean man who returned from Kazakhstan on 11 Mar.

He was issued a stay-home notice upon his arrival and served it at a dedicated facility until 25 March.

He was tested twice for the coronavirus – once upon arrival and another during his stay – and the results for both tests came back negative.

On the night of his second test, which happened to be the day before his release, the man developed a cough.

As you know from the headline, the man did not report his symptoms to the authorities. Instead, he simply returned home.

This was a bad move. 

The next day, the man developed a fever and headache and finally sought medical treatment at a GP clinic where he was tested for COVID-19.

This time, his test result came back positive and he was taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases on the same day.

1 Community Case Reported On Consecutive Days After Two Weeks of Zero Local Infections

After a beautiful two weeks without locally transmitted infections, one community case each was reported on Friday (26 March) and Saturday (27 March).

Interestingly, both community cases could be past infections, as they tested negative soon after testing positive for COVID-19, and also had positive serological tests.

The first is a foreign domestic worker from Myanmar and the second is a permanent resident who returned from India.

Increase in Community & Unlinked Cases

At the moment, Singapore has a total of 60,288 cases, 32 of whom are in hospital.

One patient is in critical condition in the intensive care unit while another 113 are recuperating in community facilities.

The bad news is that the number of new community cases has risen from none in the week before to two cases in the past week.

Similarly, the number of unlinked cases in the community has also gone up from none in the week before to two cases in the past week.

Featured Image: Christian Heinz / Shutterstock.com