SINGAPORE The ministry of health (MOH) confirmed that one of the five imported Covid-19 cases yesterday was a 23-year-old Malaysian woman who served her Stay-Home Notice (SHN) at a hotel here.
It said she was transferred to another dedicated facility on Dec 20 when the ministry commenced investigations into 13 previously reported cases who had served their notices at the same hotel between Oct 22 and Nov 11.
Labelled as case 58762, the work permit holder was swabbed on Dec 19 and Dec 21 and her test results were negative for Covid-19 infection, the ministry said last night.
“Her swab on Dec 24 at the end of SHN came back positive, and she was conveyed to the hospital the next day. A confirmatory test by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) was also positive,” it said.
However, the ministry said a second sample taken by NPHL on Dec 26 came back negative, and her serological test result has also come back negative.
It said investigations were ongoing to assess if the woman, who is asymptomatic, could be linked to the 13 cases.
The ministry said the 13 imported cases were observed to have high genetic similarity despite having arrived from different countries, including Bahrain, Canada, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US.
As of noon yesterday, Singapore reported five new cases, with none in the community or residing in dormitories, bringing the total infection here to 58,524.
It has so far classified 1,742 of the reported cases as imported, 2,276 as community cases and 54,506 involving dormitory residents.
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