betty October 15, 2020

Customers at Clementi Mall enjoying a massage yesterday amid safe distancing measures. While the average number of new daily cases in the community in a week has fallen to fewer than one a day in the past week, Education Minister Lawrence Wong reiter

A 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl are the two new Covid-19 cases in the community reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday.

Both patients had last been at their respective schools on Oct 2. They were both quarantined from Oct 3, and were swabbed on that day but tested negative, MOH said in a statement last night.

Both later developed symptoms during quarantine and subsequently tested positive on Tuesday.

There were no new local cases from workers’ dormitories yesterday, said the ministry. This was the second day in a row that no new cases from dormitories were reported.

Yesterday morning, Education Minister Lawrence Wong cautioned against complacency and said that Singapore will likely see new cases.

In a Facebook post, Mr Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19, acknowledged the fatigue that has set in for the current measures, but reiterated that “the virus had not been eradicated”, adding that “it’s still circulating in our community”.

“We still need to keep our guard up and stay very disciplined in complying with all the necessary safeguards. That’s the mindset that will enable us to continue on this path of progressive reopening in a safe and sustainable manner,” he said.

Imported cases made up the remaining three of the five new cases announced yesterday. They were a Singaporean returning from the United Kingdom, a short-term visit pass holder returning from Russia and a student’s pass holder returning from India.

All the imported cases were placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore. They were tested positive while serving their notices at dedicated facilities.

Hi Five, an Indian-Muslim food outlet in the Rochor area, was the sole new location added yesterday to a list of places visited by infectious Covid-19 patients.

MOH provides the list of locations that such patients visited for at least 30 minutes and the times they visited to get people who were at those places to monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

The full list of locations and times can be found on the gov.sg website.

  • Update on cases

  • New cases: 5 

    Imported: 3 (1 Singaporean, 1 short-term visit pass holder, 1 student’s pass holder)

    In community: 2 (2 Singaporeans)

    In dormitories: 0

    Active cases: 109 

    In hospitals: 39 (0 in ICU)

    In community facilities: 70

    Deaths: 28

    Patients with Covid-19 who died from other causes: 15

    Total discharged: 57,737 

    Discharged yesterday: 12

    TOTAL CASES: 57,889

The ministry has said that close contacts would already have been notified and that there is no need to avoid these places as they would have been cleaned if necessary.

The average number of new daily cases in the community in a week has decreased from one case a day two weeks ago to fewer than one a day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has also decreased from a daily average of fewer than one case a day to none in same period.