24 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, all imported

[SINGAPORE] There were 24 new coronavirus cases confirmed as at Friday noon (Jan 29), all of them imported.

The imported cases had been placed on stay-home notice on arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

There were no new cases in the community in the past week, and none from workers' dormitories.

Friday's new cases take Singapore's total to 59,449.

On Thursday, MOH said only one new Covid-19 case in the community was reported in the past week and there were no unlinked ones.

This comes after there were 21 new cases in the community in the week before and six unlinked cases in the same time period.

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Friday, 8.30 am

Asean Business

Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies.

Sign Up

Meanwhile, two of the Covid-19 cases announced on Thursday have tested preliminarily positive for the B117 strain of the coronavirus that is circulating in Britain.

They are among the 34 new coronavirus cases, all imported, that were announced by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday.

The two new cases with the B117 strain of the virus are a work permit holder, 31, who had arrived from Bangladesh, and a work pass holder, 33, from India.

Initially, the work permit holder had tested negative for Covid-19 after he was swabbed on Jan 17 during his stay-home notice (SHN) period.

On Jan 18, he was quarantined and isolated after he had been identified as a flight contact of another Covid-19 patient. He was tested again on Tuesday and confirmed positive for Covid-19. He has also tested preliminary positive for the B117 strain and is pending further confirmatory tests.

The other man who tested preliminarily positive for the B117 strain is a software engineer at shipping company Pacific International Lines. He was swabbed on Jan 7 during his SHN and tested negative for Covid-19.

However, he developed nausea on Monday and visited the doctor the next day. On Wednesday, he was confirmed to have Covid-19. "Given their recent travel history, we have classified both cases as imported," said the ministry.

Shrimp Prawn Seafood in Boat Quay, Amoy Street Food Centre and China Square Food Centre were added to the list of locations visited by infectious Covid-19 patients.

With 44 cases discharged on Thursday, 59,133 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 40 patients remain in hospital, while 208 are recuperating in community facilities. None is in intensive care.

THE STRAITS TIMES