SINGAPORE — A 38-year-old nurse at the National Heart Centre Singapore was among the 451 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on Wednesday (June 10), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

The Singaporean nurse, who developed symptoms last Friday on June 5, has no known links to confirmed cases and no recent travel history to affected countries or regions.

She had not gone to work since the onset of her symptoms, was diagnosed on Tuesday and warded at the Singapore General Hospital.

The nurse is part of seven new cases in the community. The others being:

• A 67-year-old Singaporean man who had symptoms on May 25

• A 56-year-old Singaporean man who was working as a security guard at a foreign worker dormitory

• A 43-year-old work pass holder from Malaysia who works as a security guard at a foreign worker dormitory

• Three work permit holders from Bangladesh, China and India

MOH said in its news release that the two security guards and two work permit holders from Bangladesh and China were proactively screened as part of the ministry’s surveillance and active case finding to identify cases early and isolate them, including the screening of workers in essential services and persons working at dormitories.

The 67-year-old Singaporean is a housemate of earlier confirmed cases, and had already been quarantined in a government quarantine facility. He was swabbed during quarantine, MOH said.

The work permit holder from India had also been quarantined before he was diagnosed because of close contact with confirmed cases.

Investigations are ongoing for the nurse to find the source of infection.

MOH said that the number of new cases in the community has gone up from an average of four cases a day in the week before to an average of nine cases a day in the past week.

It added that the number of cases in the community with no known sources of infection has also increased from an average of two cases a day in the week before to an average of four cases a day in the past week.

“This is partly due to our active surveillance and screening of targeted groups, which have picked up more cases in the past week,” it said, adding that it will continue to closely monitor these numbers as well as the cases detected through its surveillance programme.

MOH also identified three new dormitories that are new clusters of infections. They are located at 9 Sungei Kadut Street 3, 19A Tech Park Crescent and 113 Tuas View Walk 1.

UPDATE ON CASES INVOLVING STUDENTS

MOH and the Ministry of Education had announced earlier on June 7 that six people were found to have Covid-19 as a result of proactive testing of school staff members and students above the age of 12, once they were diagnosed with acute respiratory infection at first presentation to a doctor.

“All six cases had displayed mild symptoms, with low viral loads,” MOH said, adding that a repeat test using new samples showed that all the cases were negative.

All of them have since recovered and five have been discharged from the hospital.

“The remaining case is medically fit for discharge, but remains in hospital pending resolution of administrative issues.”

UPDATE ON REST OF THE CASES

In all, 26,532 people have fully recovered from Covid-19 and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 655 on Wednesday.

There are still 223 patients in hospitals. Of these, most are stable or improving, and three are in critical condition under intensive care.

MOH said that 12,185 patients are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.

Twenty-five people have died from complications due to Covid-19.