MOE Says 5 Confirmed COVID-19 Cases in Schools Aren’t a Cluster & They Were Infected Before Schools Reopen

Today, we were all shocked at the daily report MOH put out.

There are 14 community cases, and 10 of them are Singaporeans or Singapore PRs.

And worst of all?

5 of them are from 5 different schools.

However, just as MOH announced the numbers, MOE released a statement about these 5 cases, too, at the same time.

And they say that it’s not a cluster.

MOE Says 5 Confirmed COVID-19 Cases in Schools Aren’t a Cluster & Are Infected Before Schools Reopen

In a press statement, MOE confirms that they’re also doing surveillance testing for COVID-19 for all school staff and students above the age of 12 who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI) at first presentation to a doctor, instead of only for those with prolonged symptoms.

They’ve started doing that on 2 June 2020, the first day of school reopening for school staff and older students with ARI symptoms. Students below 12 years old and below will only be tested if they persistently display respiratory symptoms, as swabbing may be uncomfortable for them and requires healthcare professionals with special expertise.

This is how the 5 cases came about today.

4 of them are students and 1 is a non-teaching staff. They are from 5 different schools – Anglican High School, CHIJ Katong Convent, CHIJ St. Theresa’s Convent, Geylang Methodist Secondary School and Hwa Chong Institution.

It’s therefore not a cluster.

The student from Hwa Chong Institution was last in school on 7 April, before the start of the Circuit Breaker.

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For the other 4 cases, 3 were last in school on 3 June, while 1 was last in school on 2 June.

All of them have displayed mild symptoms, with the onset of symptoms being 3 June for 3 cases, and 2 June and 31 May for the remaining 2 cases.

Although they’ve all been tested positive, a second test shows that they’re negative instead. It’s therefore likely that they were infected before school reopens.

It’s unknown if they’re past infections whereby they’re just shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA picked by the PCR test, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.

Students, Don’t Cheer Yet

If you’re a student and think that school is going to be closed, perish that thought immediately.

Everything remains unchanged.

The schools have also been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and everything remains unchanged.

However, 29 staff members and 100 students who were in contact with the confirmed cases would be issued with a 14-day Leave of Absence (LOA) by MOE or Home Quarantine Order (HQO). Contact tracing and investigations are currently ongoing.

So parents, don’t panic and tell your boss that you need to WFH again, because nothing has changed.

Yet.

Here’s our Education Minister talking about these cases today: