COVID: 9 community cases among 18 new cases in Singapore

Staff Writer
·Editorial team
·4 min read
People wearing protective mask cross a street on June 8, 2021 in Singapore. Singapore enters a month long heightened alert from May 16 to June 13 to curb the spread of COVID-19 cases in the local community. New restrictions on movements and activities have been introduced such as limiting social interaction to two, prohibiting dining out and a reduced operating capacity at shopping malls, offices and attractions. (Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday (12 June) confirmed 18 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, bringing the country's total case count to 62,263.

The ministry said in a press release that there are nine new community cases, with four linked to previous cases. Among them, three have already been placed on quarantine, and one was detected through surveillance. The remaining five cases are currently unlinked.

This updated number of new community cases – the ministry had said there were 12 such cases in the afternoon – is because the MOH withdrew three cases after they were verified to be negative for COVID-19 upon further tests.

Additionally, there are nine imported cases, who have already been placed on Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore. All nine are returning Singaporeans or Singapore permanent residents.

Unlinked cases include cleaner at ION Orchard

The five unlinked cases currently are:

  • an 18-year-old female Singaporean who is a student at SIM Global Education, and was last in school on 24 May

  • a 27-year-old Myanmar woman who is a foreign domestic worker.

  • a 57-year-old Malaysian man who works as a land rigger at Jurong Port Pte Ltd (fully vaccinated)

  • a 45-year-old female China national who is employed by Hong Ye Group as a cleaner at ION Orchard

  • a 68-year-old Singaporean man who works as a landscape gardener at Amozonia Landscape Pte Ltd (fully vaccinated)

The MOH had earlier announced that ION Orchard will be closed to the public from Saturday to 15 June for deep cleaning, following the detection of three COVID-19 cases among those working at the mall.

New MARINA ARIEL cluster

The first case in this cluster is a 38-year-old Indonesian man who is employed by Marina Offshore Pte Ltd as a sea crew on board tugboat MARINA ARIEL. He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 11 June. The two other cases in this cluster are workplace contacts of this case. They tested positive while on quarantine and were announced on Saturday:

  • a 40-year-old Indonesia man who is employed by Marina Offshore Pte Ltd as an engineer on board tugboat MARINA ARIEL

  • a 38-year-old Indonesian man who is employed by Marina Offshore Pte Ltd as a sea crew on board tugboat MARINA ARIEL

Two other linked cases include elderly woman

The other linked cases are:

  • a 35-year-old female Malaysia national who works as an administrative staff at Ces Lamination Pte Ltd

  • an 82-year-old Singaporean woman who regularly helps out at a sundry store at 115 Bukit Merah View Market & Hawker Centre (fully vaccinated)

3 Singapore PRs among imported cases

Among the nine imported cases, six are Singaporeans and three are Singapore permanent residents who returned from India, Portugal, Russia, Thailand, the UK and US.

The ministry noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 129 in the week before to 32 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from 20 in the week before to 14 in the past week. Singapore currently has 46 active COVID-19 clusters.

Authorities on Thursday said that Singapore will gradually move to Phase 3 (Heightened Alert) in two steps, with one set of measures taking effect from 14 June and another from 21 June.

From 14 June, the size of social gatherings allowed in Singapore will be increased to five people, up from the current limit of two persons. Dining in at food and beverage establishments, however, can only resume from 21 June provided that the COVID-19 situation remains under control.

In addition, work-from-home will remain the default work arrangement in Phase 3 (Heightened Alert).

99% of total cases have recovered, 1 in ICU

With 39 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Saturday, 61,838 cases – or 99.3 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 125 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while one of them is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 266 patients – with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive – are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from the 34 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

Among the 87 confirmed cases reported from 6 to 12 June, 46 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 25 have tested negative, and 16 serology test results are pending.

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