SINGAPORE – A 36-year-old permanent resident who was preparing to depart for India was one of Singapore’s reported Covid-19 cases on Sunday (Jan 31).
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said the man had returned from a trip to India on Dec 19 last year, and served his stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until Jan 2.
He had tested negative for Covid-19 on Dec 31, and had shown no symptoms.
His infection was only revealed on Saturday from a pre-departure test he took in preparation for another trip to India, said MOH.
Tests shown that the man had a low viral load, and a serology test result also came back positive.
MOH added: “Given that these indicate likely past infection, we have classified the case as imported based on his travel history.
“He is likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA, which are no longer transmissible and infective to others.”
A total of 29 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed on Sunday, taking Singapore’s total to 59,536.
All of the cases were imported cases, with none in the community or workers’ dormitories.
The imported cases had flown in from countries including India, the United Kingdom and Nigeria.
There were 13 work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Myanmar. Of these, six are foreign domestic workers.
All of the imported cases have already been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival and were tested while serving the notice. None of them had symptoms.
The number of new cases in the community has fallen to three cases in the past week, compared with 15 cases in the week before.
Meanwhile, the number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from three cases in the week before to two cases in the past week.
“We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme,” MOH added.
With 32 cases discharged on Sunday, 59,213 patients have fully recovered from the disease. A total of 44 patients are still in hospital, with none in the intensive care unit.
Globally, more than 100 million people have been infected with Covid-19, and more than two million deaths have been recorded.