COVID-19: Singapore confirms 14 new cases, 2 of them work at Changi Airport T3
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 14 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Saturday (24 October) noon, taking the country’s total cases to 57,965.
Of the new cases, two are in the community, one is residing in a dormitory and 11 are imported. Twelve were asymptomatic, while the other two were symptomatic.
The two community cases are working at Changi Airport Terminal 3. One is a security officer at T3 who had gone to work prior to hospital admission. He also visited the Singapore National Eye Centre for treatment of a non-related medical condition. The other case is a temperature screener and swab assistant at Raffles Medical at T3 who had also gone to work prior to hospital admission.
Both cases were detected under enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection at first presentation to a doctor.
While both cases work at T3, they had not interacted with each other, and epidemiological investigations so far have not established any link between them. As a precautionary measure, all individuals working at T3 who may have contact with travellers will be tested for COVID-19.
As travel volume is expected to pick up in the coming months, MOH has been in discussion with relevant agencies to ramp up rostered routine testing of frontline staff working at Changi Airport.
FairPrice Finest at T3 was added to the list of public places visited by COVID-19 cases in the community while infectious. The period visited was on 17 October, from 7pm to 8pm.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from four cases in the week before, to three in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from one case in the week before, to three in the past week.
The sole dormitory case was detected through bi-weekly rostered routine testing of workers living in dormitories.
Amongst the 11 imported cases, three are Singaporeans and one is a Singapore permanent resident who returned from India and the Philippines.
Another three are work permit holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from Indonesia and the Philippines. Three more cases are a student’s pass holder who arrived from France and two long-term visit pass holders who arrived from India and Indonesia. The remaining case is a short-term visit pass holder who arrived from India. She was allowed entry into Singapore as her parent is a Singapore permanent resident.
99% of total cases have recovered; none in ICU
With 12 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Sunday, 57,844 cases – or 99.8 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.
Most of the 53 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
A total of 40 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.
Apart from 28 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.
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