Singapore permanent resident preparing for India trip tests COVID-19 positive

Singapore, February 1

A 36-year-old permanent resident in Singapore, preparing to depart for India, has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a media report.

Tests showed that the man had a low viral load and a serology test result also came back positive on Saturday, The Straits Times quoted the Ministry of Health (MOH) as saying.

His infection was revealed on Saturday from a pre-departure test he took in preparation for another trip to India. The man had returned from a trip to India on December 19 last year, and served his stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until January 2.

He tested negative for COVID-19 on December 31 and showed no symptoms.

“Given that these indicate likely past infection, we have classified the case as imported based on his travel history,” the Singapore daily quoted the MOH as saying.

“He is likely to be shedding minute fragments of the virus RNA (Ribonucleic Acid), which are no longer transmissible and infective to others,” the MOH said.

Twenty-eight other COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the country on Sunday, taking the tally to 59,536.

All the cases were imported ones, with none in the community (local) or foreign workers’ dormitories.

The imported cases had flown in from countries including India, the UK and Nigeria.

There were 13 work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Myanmar. Of these, six are foreign domestic workers.

All the imported cases have already been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival and were tested while serving the notice. None of them had symptoms.

The number of new cases in the community has fallen to three in the past week, compared to 15 in the week before.

With 32 recoveries on Sunday, so far 59,213 patients have recovered from the disease. As many as 44 patients are still in hospital, the report added. PTI