The Only Unlinked Community Cases Reported on 30 Apr is an NUS Student Who Was in India A few Months Ago

Shortly after we announced our air travel bubble with Hong Kong, the coronavirus woke up from its long nap and decided it was time for work again.

If the seven-day moving average of unlinked community cases in either country exceeds five, the bubble could be postponed.

We’re not there yet, but COVID-19 has certainly been working hard to make it happen.

The Only Unlinked Community Case Reported on 30 Apr is an NUS Student Who Was in India A few Months Ago

24 new COVID-19 cases were reported yesterday (30 Apr), of whom 9 are from the community.

That number would usually scare us, but because 16 community cases were reported the previous day, we breathed a sigh of relief instead.

The only unlinked community case is a 20 year-old male Indian national who is a resident on the Yale-NUS Campus.

The student last attended classes on 12 Apr.

He travelled to India on 21 March last year and had been there until 20 Jan, 2021, when he returned.

While he was in India, he was a close contact of two confirmed COVID-19 cases.

It was only on Monday that the 20-year-old started experiencing symptoms – he developed a fever, sore throat, and body aches and isolated himself in his room.

He was tested for COVID-19 at the National University of Singapore’s University Health Centre on Wednesday and his result came back positive the next day.

This may be a past infection, however, as his CT (cycle threshold) value was very high – indicative of a low viral load – and his serology test came back positive.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) explained that he could be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.

The ministry can’t say for sure when and where he got infected, however.

4 Community Cases Linked to TTSH Cluster

If you’re unaware of the cluster growing at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), you might have been napping with the coronavirus this whole time.

After a 46-year-old nurse there tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, several other patients and staff members were found to be carrying the virus too.

Yesterday, another four community infections were linked to the cluster, bringing the total number of infections to 13.

Of the four, one is a 41-year-old Chinese national who works as a cleaner and was deployed to Ward 9D, where the cluster began.

Another patient of the same ward, a 77-year-old woman, was also infected after she was admitted to the ward on 22 Apr.

She was discharged to United Medicare Centre (Toa Payoh) Nursing Home on Tuesday, and tested positive the next day.

The infections aren’t limited to Ward 9D, however.

A 65-year-old Singaporean woman who is a patient in Ward 9C and a 36-year-old Singaporean male doctor at the National Neuroscience Institute – which is inside TTSH – also tested positive for the coronavirus.

Of the remaining four community infections, two are a 33-year-old female Indian national and her four-year-old daughter. They are linked to the 34-year-old Indian research fellow who tested positive on 15 Apr.

The other two are linked to a 39-year-old Vietnamese woman who works as a cleaner at a community care facility at Tuas South. She was confirmed to be a COVID-19 case on Wednesday.

Both of them – a 41-year-old Malaysian man and a 26-year-old female permanent resident – are household contacts of the woman.

The Malaysian man works as a sales assistant at New Odense(s) Confectionery & Bakery in Woodlands, while the PR is a colleague of the woman.

15 new imported cases were announced on Friday, all of whom had been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival here.

As you would have guessed, the number of new community cases increased from 10 two weeks ago to 35 in the past week.

Similarly, the number of unlinked cases in the community in a week also increased from five to six over the same period.

Let’s hope that the coronavirus decides to take another long nap, or else we can kiss our Hong Kong vacation goodbye.

Featured Image: Google Maps