Sole Unlinked COVID-19 Case on 6 June is a Student from Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School

After weeks of being too scary to look at, the number of community cases is now approaching a figure which our hearts can handle.

We’re now in the last week of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert), and the tightened measures are certainly working.

Of the 20 new COVID-19 infections yesterday, 6 were from the community. Only one was unlinked.

Here are the details:

Unlinked Case

The only case with no established links is a 13-year-old Singaporean.

She is a student at Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School and was last in school on 18 May.

The young teenager developed anosmia on 29 May but did not seek medical treatment until 4 June when she visited a GP clinic.

She was tested for COVID-19 and her test result came back positive the next day. Her serology test result is pending.

NTUC Foodfare (308 Anchorvale Road) Cluster

One cluster which has consistently grown in the past week is the NTUC Foodfare cluster. The latest addition is a 50-year-old Chinese man who works as a machine operator at Xinghe Knife Sharpening Service.

He was placed on quarantine on 2 June after being identified as a family member and household contact of a previous case.

He is asymptomatic but tested positive during his quarantine. His serology test result is pending.

McDonald’s Delivery Riders Cluster

Another cluster that continues to grow is the one involving McDonald’s delivery riders. A 29-year-old Malaysian man who works as a delivery rider at Pizza Hut (Bukit Merah) was linked to the cluster yesterday.

A resident of Wanderloft Capsule Hostel, he underwent both an ART and PCR test at a GP clinic on 22 May.

That same day, he was placed on quarantine after being identified as a close contact of 6 previous cases.

He later tested positive on 5 June during quarantine, even though he was asymptomatic. His serology test result is pending.

Tektronix Cluster

Two of the community infections reported yesterday were linked to the Tektronix cluster, namely:

•  a 13-year-old Singaporean boy who is a student at Canberra Secondary School
•  a 10-year-old Singaporean boy who is a student at Endeavour Primary School

Both students were last in school on 18 May.

Both were also placed on quarantine on 25 May after being identified as family members and household contacts of previous cases.

They tested positive on 5 June, and their serology test is pending.

Case 63931 Cluster

The only bad news yesterday was that a new cluster had been identified.

The Case 63931 cluster was named after an 82-year-old Singaporean retiree who was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 1 June.

The new community case linked to him in the cluster is a 79-year-old female Singaporean who is a retiree.

She is a family member and household contact of Case 63931 and a household contact of another case. She was placed on quarantine on 1 June.

When tested on 2 June, her result was negative. But when she was tested again on 5 June, her test returned a positive result even though she’s asymptomatic.

Her serology test result is also pending.

14 Imported Cases

Besides the 6 community cases, 14 imported infections were reported. They are:

• 6 Singaporeans and 6 Singapore Permanent Residents who returned from India
• 1 Work Pass holder who arrived from Myanmar
• 1 Short-Term Visit Pass holder who arrived from Indonesia to visit her family member who is a Singaporean

They had all been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore.

207 Cases in Hospital

At the moment, there are 207 confirmed COVID-19 cases in hospitals, of whom most are stable and improving. 2 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Another 321 cases with mild symptoms and lower risk factors are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

22 more cases have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities recently.

Overall, the number of new community cases has gone down from 136 cases in the week before to 116 cases in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from 23 cases in the week before to 17 cases in the past week.

There was more good news yesterday as clusters at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and Pasir Panjang Terminal were closed after no new cases were linked to them for 28 days.

The TTSH cluster had 48 cases, while the cluster at Pasir Panjang Terminal had five cases.

Featured Image: Google Maps