When the government announced last week that they were tightening COVID-19 measures for a month, some of us fell to our knees in the streets as it rained and looked towards the clouds shouting “WHY?!”
Then, yesterday, we saw the number of new infections from the community and said “Oh… that’s why.
The new restrictions may give us traumatic flashbacks to the circuit breaker and be hard to take after we’ve done so well, but they’re certainly necessary at this point.
What’s concerning isn’t just the surge in community infections, but the rise in cases with no known links as well.
A whopping 17 of those community cases reported yesterday were unlinked, one of whom happens to be from yet another hospital.
One Unlinked COVID-19 Case is a Nurse at Raffles Hospital
One case is a 29-year-old Philippines national who works as a nurse at Raffles Hospital.
She arrived from the Philippines on 1 April and served her stay-home notice at a dedicated facility until 14 April. When she was tested on the last day of her quarantine, her result came back negative.
Exactly a month later, she was tested as part of Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) for healthcare workers and her infection was confirmed on 15 May, even though she’s asymptomatic.
She received her first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on 8 May.
Her serology test result is pending.
MBS Casino Dealer’s Infection Unlinked Too
Another case on the long list of unlinked infections reported yesterday is a 35-year-old male Singaporean who works as a dealer at Marina Bay Sands Casino.
He developed a cough, runny nose, sore throat, and body aches on 14 May, and fever the next day.
He sought medical treatment at a GP clinic where he underwent an Antigen Rapid Test ART and tested positive for COVID-19.
A PCR test is taken on the same day also returned a positive result.
His earlier tests from Rostered Routine Testing – the last being on 21 April – were all negative for COVID-19 infection. His serology result is pending.
Sheng Siong Worker’s Infection Has No Known Links
All staff members at a Sheng Siong outlet in Bukit Batok will be tested after an employee was recently confirmed to be carrying COVID-19.
The employee, who works the night shift at the Sheng Siong outlet at Block 440 Bukit Batok Avenue 8, is a 28-year-old male Malaysia national.
He developed a sore throat on 14 May and a fever the next day. He sought medical treatment at a GP clinic that day and tested positive for COVID-19.
The man completed his vaccination regimen on 25 Mar, having received his first dose on 4 Mar.
The other 14 unlinked cases are:
- a 55-year-old male Singaporean who works as a warehouse assistant at Jin Tai Mart
- a 54-year-old female Malaysia national who works at Sms Infocomm (Singapore) Pte Ltd
- a 55-year-old male Singaporean who works as a driver at KEN Express Services Pte Ltd
- a 52-year-old male Singapore Permanent Resident who is employed by Certis Cisco Security as an auxiliary police officer at Bank of China located at Westgate
- a 40-year-old male Singaporean who is an accountant at 3R Corporation Pte Ltd and works from home
- a 18-year-old male Singaporean who is a student at Singapore Polytechnic and works part-time at Star Arts located at Westgate
- a 57-year-old female Malaysia national who is currently unemployed
- a 34-year-old male Singaporean who works at ST Telemedia Global Data Centres
- a 64-year-old female Singapore Permanent Resident who is currently unemployed
- a 29-year-old male Singaporean who works as a digital web designer
- a 35-year-old female Portugal national who works as a sales personnel at Sanofi-Aventis
- a 48-year-old female Singapore Permanent Resident who works at What the Fish at Junction 8 and Pin Xiang Yan at 10 Jurong East Street 12
- a 44-year-old male Singaporean who works at Clean Solutions Pte Ltd
- a 77-year-old female Singaporean who is a homemaker
Number of Community & Unlinked Cases Spiking
The number of unlinked cases in the community has shot up from six in the week before to 32 in the past week.
And the number of community infections has skyrocketed to 131 in the past week from 39 in the week before.
The 38 community cases reported yesterday is the highest number of community cases reported since 14 Apr last year, when 40 infections in the community were reported.
Seven have tested preliminarily positive for the B1617 variant, six of whom are unlinked.
To know more about B1617 and why viruses mutate, watch this video to the end:
We may be crying about our inability to eat Bak Kut Teh at the coffee shop with our friends, but unless we want a full-blown circuit breaker, we should dry our eyes and adhere to the restrictions in place.
As our new Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said, Singapore is on a “knife edge”, and community infections can “go either way.”
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