Singapore reports 38 new coronavirus cases; govt presses on with vaccination drive

A work permit holder from India has tested COVID-19 positive in Singapore after rostered routine testing on January 12 and was confirmed along with 37 other imported cases of the disease in the last 24 hours, even as the island nation presses on with its vaccination drive.

The Indian coronavirus patient, a resident of Seatown Dormitory in industrial Tuas region on the west coast of Singapore, arrived here on December 11 last year and served his 'stay-home' notice at a dedicated facility till December 25, reported Channel News Asia on Thursday.

His swabs were taken on December 21 and December 27 and the test reports returned negative. He started work at a construction site on January 6.

''Given the relatively long interval between his travel and positive COVID-19 test, we have classified this case as locally transmitted while epidemiological investigations are in progress,'' said the Ministry of Health (MoH).

The ministry added that all his close contacts, including those in the dormitory and his co-workers, have been isolated and placed on quarantine.

They will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that asymptomatic cases can be detected.

The 37 other cases reported on Wednesday have been placed on 'stay home' notice or isolated. They include three Singaporeans and five permanent residents, who returned from France, India, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The rest are 21 work permit holders from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines.

Eight of the work permit holders are foreign domestic workers, and one is a sailor who worked on board a bunker tanker, said the ministry.

The tanker ceased all operations after the MoH announced that nine cases were linked to the cluster on Tuesday.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community (local) has decreased to 4 cases in the past week from 12 cases in the week before.

Singapore's COVID-19 cases totalled 58,984 as of Wednesday, while 58,722 patients have fully recovered from the infection, 29 have died.

Singaporeans are being urged to get vaccinated at the earliest. Education Minister Lawrence Wong, in charge of COVID-19 managing committee, said Singaporeans should focus only on the earliest time to get vaccinated, instead of waiting for the ''right brands''.

More than 6,200 people have been vaccinated in the island nation since December 30, 2020 when the vaccination exercise began for its 5.7 million people.

The government last week announced that enough vaccine doses have been purchased for everyone.

Wong said there is no way of knowing when one's preferred brand might be available, but gave assurance that vaccines selected by Singapore are safe.

''What we have today is an authorised vaccine that is safe, that's effective,'' the Channel quoted the minister as saying.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the first COVID-19 vaccine that has been approved for use here.

Vaccines by other pharmaceutical companies, Moderna and Sinovac, are expected to arrive in the months ahead.

The roll-out of the vaccine jabs are being done in a phased manner, which will correspond with the arrival of Singapore's vaccine shipments.

The government is setting up COVID-19 vaccination centres that will allow a large number of people to be vaccinated daily, according to the Channel report.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)