Well, it’s finally happened.
When news of the Omicron variant emerged last month, countries all over the world took the necessary precautionary measures to keep it out of their borders.
But, just like eating only one potato chip, preventing the new strain from spreading to the community was always going to be impossible.
Before yesterday (9 Dec), all of the cases who had tested positive for the Omicron variant had been from abroad.
But now, we have our first local case of the variant.
S’pore Reports First Community COVID-19 Case Who Preliminarily Tested Positive for Omicron
Two more COVID-19 cases have tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant, one of which is a local case.
The local case—a 24-year-old woman—is a passenger service staff member at Changi Airport Terminals 1 and 3.
More notably, she also worked in the transit holding area, where she may have come into contact with passengers from Omicron-affected countries, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
As a border front-line worker, she’s had to undergo weekly rostered routine testing, and a recent test on Wednesday (8 Dec) not only came back positive but showed that she was carrying the Omicron strain.
She self-isolated at home when she received the news and was later conveyed to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. Tests are ongoing to confirm the infection.
The woman, who is asymptomatic, had been fully vaccinated and received her booster shot.
The other COVID-19 case who tested preliminarily positive for the new variant is an imported case.
The 46-year-old woman, a permanent resident, had returned to Singapore under the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTA) from Germany on Monday (6 Dec). She too, has received her booster shot.
Both her pre-departure test and on-arrival test had come back negative, but she sought medical attention a day after her arrival as she developed a runny nose.
She tested positive for the disease, as well as the Omicron variant.
MOH: Expect to Find More Omicron Cases in Our Community
The health ministry said we can expect more cases of the Omicron strain in Singapore, including in the community.
This is due to its higher transmissibility and the fact that it has already spread to many countries and regions.
A recent study in Japan showed that the Omicron strain is more than four times more infectious than the Delta variant, another COVID-19 variant that was more contagious than previous iterations.
This is why the authorities are carrying out contact tracing for both these cases, and have placed all their close contacts on a 10-day quarantine at designated facilities, where they will undergo testing.
As an additional measure, Changi Airport staff will undergo daily antigen rapid tests for the next seven days, in addition to their weekly PCR tests.
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