SINGAPORE — There are now 17 confirmed cases of Covid-19 infections from the latest cluster involving a private function at Safra Jurong, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Friday (March 6).

Of these, nine cases were among the 13 new Covid-19 infections that were reported on Friday — the highest number of cases reported in a day so far.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ATTENDED THE EVENT?

Speaking to reporters, Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, director of medical services at MOH, said that the authorities do not yet know the exact number of guests who were present at the dinner function on Feb 15.

In a statement on Thursday, Safra said that the event was held at the Joy Garden Restaurant on its premises, which was then closed for cleaning from Feb 16 to 19. All visitors had their temperatures checked and were required to make declarations about their recent travel history, it added.

“They did not have fever or exhibited any flu-like symptoms. They also did not have any recent travel history to mainland China within the past 14 days of their visit to the club as stated within their declaration,” Safra said.

Assoc Prof Mak added that investigations are ongoing to assess how many people attended the dinner and which people might have had close contact with individuals who the authorities now know to have infections.

WHAT KIND OF EVENT WAS IT? 

Associate Professor Vernon Lee, director of communicable diseases at MOH, said that the private event was a sit-down dinner and a social event organised by a couple of individuals for friends and their other family members.

Assoc Prof Mak said that people were seated at more than one table, and they were moving around the private function room throughout the dinner.

WHY DID IT TAKE A WHILE TO FIND LINKS?

Not all of the 17 confirmed cases from the cluster at Safra Jurong attended the private dinner function, Assoc Prof Mak said. Some of the infected people linked to the cluster were not present, but were family members of those who had attended the function.

It took “some time” to establish how the infected people in the cluster were linked, he said.

This came only after extensive recording, investigations of the movements of the infected people and contact tracing. Then the authorities were able to identify the activity that the confirmed cases had in common — that is, the private function at Safra Jurong.

Assoc Prof Mak added that the authorities had to interview these individuals, trying to find out what their movements were, assessing who they had come into contact with and then interviewing those other people as well.

“That takes time. And this explains why it is taking so long to establish the various people involved, to also make a diagnosis on these individuals as well,” he said, adding that contact tracing and investigations are continuing.

Assoc Prof Mak warned that there is a possibility that more cases linked to this cluster will emerge over the next few days.

WHY ARE SOME CASES ONLY EMERGING NOW?

A number of cases from the Safra Jurong cluster presented themselves to the authorities “days after they were symptomatic”, Assoc Prof Mak said.

Some of the infected people continued with social activities and went to work despite having respiratory symptoms, he added.

“We’ve always been telling members of the public that if you are sick, please don’t mix around, (don’t) continue with your social activities (or) work activities. If you are sick, see a doctor early and isolate.” 

When people do not heed the call to not go out to gatherings when they have flu-symptoms or are sick, it makes it harder to contain the disease and "exposes other people who otherwise would have been well to the Covid-19 infection", he said.

"And this thus makes our task even more challenging in trying to identify who the close contacts might be, and then isolating them and putting them on surveillance.”

Assoc Prof Lee emphasised the same point: “It is all a cluster, as a result of someone symptomatic who went for the event.

“So, as long as people adhere to these social responsibilities and don’t go around when they are ill, then we can see that this entire incident would not have happened.”

Asked what had been done to the identified attendees at the private function, Assoc Prof Lee explained that it had been more than 14 days since the event took place, so only those who reported that they were unwell had to go to the hospital for checks.

“Those who were well throughout would not have been quarantined because they had already passed that 14-day exposure period,” he said.

WHO ELSE ARE LINKED TO THE CLUSTER?

Aside from the nine newly confirmed cases on Friday, eight other cases reported previously have been linked to the cluster at Safra Jurong.

They are: Case 96, a Year 1 Raffles Institution student, who is linked to Case 94, a 64-year-old Singaporean woman who is then linked to Case 112, an assistant cook at Creative O Preschoolers’ Bay. None of the cases has recently travelled to China, or Daegu city or Cheongdo county in South Korea.

Case 107, a 68-year-old Singaporean woman, was in Jakarta, Indonesia from Feb 11 to 14, while Case 117, a 52-year-old Singaporean woman, was in Malaysia on March 1.

Other cases linked to the Safra Jurong cluster are Cases 114, 115 and 116 who were confirmed on Thursday.

WHAT PRECAUTIONS DID SAFRA JURONG TAKE? 

In a statement on its website on Thursday, Safra said that the individuals who had attended the private dinner function and who then tested positive for Covid-19 had cleared mandatory temperature checks it had conducted.

It said that all visitors and employees at Safra Jurong had undergone temperature checks which had been introduced in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, along with other measures such as increased cleaning and disinfection of facilities.

All visitors have to make declarations about their travel history and to provide contact details, the statement added.

In a Facebook post early on Friday, Safra said that the restaurant, along with all other possible areas which might have been visited by the affected individuals, was to be “thoroughly cleaned and disinfected again starting (March 6)”.

In a separate Facebook post, Safra Jurong said that the restaurant will be closed from March 6 to 12.