All 18 new COVID infections in Singapore asymptomatic; Zero1 at Trivex added to list

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed another 18 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore on Sunday (20 September), taking the country’s total case count to 57,576.

The MOH also added mobile virtual network operator Zero1’s customer service operations office at Trivex, located at 8 Burn Road, to a list of public venues visited by community cases while infectious. It was visited on 13 September from 1.05pm to 2.40pm.

The ministry said all 18 new cases are asymptomatic and were proactively detected.

Of them, one is from the community – a work pass holder – and four are imported. The 13 remaining cases are foreign workers living in dormitories, of which five had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined.

Overall, 28 per cent of the new cases have no established links.

The lone community case, currently unlinked, was detected via the rostered routine testing of workers in the construction, marine, and process sectors who are living outside dorms, said the MOH.

Epidemiological investigations of the case are in progress, while all his identified close contacts have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period, said the MOH.

“We will also conduct serological tests for his household contacts to determine if he could have been infected by them,” it added.

The MOH noted that the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of one case per day in the past two weeks.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of fewer than one case per day in the past two weeks, it added.

Amongst the four imported cases, two are Work pass or permit holders currently employed here who arrived from the Philippines on 8 September.

Another case is a dependant’s pass holder who arrived from Iran on 15 September and the remaining case is a student’s pass holder who arrived from Germany on 9 September.

All four had been placed on the 14-day stay-home notice upon their arrival here and were tested while serving their notice at dedicated facilities, said the MOH.

8 cases in dorms detected via surveillance testing

Amongst the 13 cases residing in dorms, five had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases and were tested during quarantine, said the MOH.

The remaining eight cases were detected via surveillance testing, such as the bi-weekly rostered routine testing of workers living in dorms.

As of Friday, about 5,700 workers who are required to undergo the routine testing have yet to do so, said the Ministry of Manpower, Economic Development Board, Building and Construction Authority, and Health Promotion Board in a joint statement on the same day.

“This is a significant reduction from the 13,000 workers from last week, and we would like to thank employers for their cooperation,” the authorities had said.

Of Singapore’s COVID-19 tally, 54,311 – or 94.3 per cent – are foreign workers living in dorms.

99% of total cases have recovered

With 39 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Sunday, 57,181 cases – or 99.3 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 30 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 338 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 27 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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