(Singapore, July 25, 2020) Singapore’s total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has crossed the 50,000 mark over the weekend.
As of 26 July 2020, 12 pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 481 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore.
Amongst the 4 imported cases, 2 (Cases 50010 and 50028) are Singaporeans/ Permanent Residents who returned to Singapore from Indonesia on 24 July.
The remaining 2 cases are Work Permit holders who arrived from the Philippines on 14 July. All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving their SHN.
Of the 5 cases in the community, 3 were picked up as a result of our proactive surveillance and screening, and 2 had already been placed on quarantine earlier. All 5 cases are asymptomatic, and were detected through our proactive testing.
Two of the community cases today are linked to previous cases or clusters. Both cases (Cases 50443 and 50444) had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had been placed on quarantine earlier. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status.
The rest three community cases are currently unlinked. All 3 (Cases 50190, 50191 and 50192) were detected as a result of our periodic screening of workers in essential services who are living outside the dormitories, even though they are asymptomatic.
Epidemiological investigations of the unlinked cases are in progress. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases. We will also conduct serological tests for their household contacts to determine if they could have been infected by them.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 10 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 7 per day in the past week.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of 5 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 4 per day in the past week.
“We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance program,” the MOH statement said.
“We continue to pick up cases amongst Work Permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises, as part of our process to verify and test the status of all workers,” it added.
The Inter-agency Taskforce is on track to clear all the dormitories by the beginning of August 2020, with the exception of 17 standalone blocks in 8 Purpose Built Dormitories, which serve as quarantine facilities for 28,000 workers still serving out their isolation period. This last batch of workers come from dormitories with a relatively high prevalence of COVID-19, and will be subject to a final test before they complete their isolation periods.
