SINGAPORE (Dec 30): Singapore today reported two preliminarily positive cases for the B117 strain, a potentially more contagious strain of the Covid-19 virus that is circulating in the UK, according to the republic’s Ministry of Health (MoH).
In its full data released here, MoH said the first case labelled as 58811 is a 40-year old Singaporean man who works as a pilot with Singapore Airlines.
He recently travelled to the UK for work for three days from Dec 19 and was tested on Dec 23 as part of Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) for aircrew who travel frequently, and his test came back negative for Covid-19 infection.
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Singapore In his message to the country’s migrant workers on International Migrants’ Day (Dec 18), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long expressed his appreciation for their “trust, patience and support,” saying that Singapore could not have achieved its success in fighting the pandemic without the “cooperation and sacrifices” of the migrant workers.
“You are welcomed members of our society,” he said, pledging medical care should any of the workers fall ill.
He posted the one and a half minute speech on his Facebook account, adding in a caption that the Covid-19 vaccine will also be offered to migrant workers.
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However, one segment of society will not be enjoying the same easing of restrictions quite yet. Singapore’s migrant workers will remain, for the most part, confined to their dormitories, at least for now.
Ninety-three per cent of the country’s cases were found among migrant workers, and a Dec 14 update from the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the prevalence rate of the infection among the 323,000 who live in dormitories is at 47 per cent, which means nearly half of the workers have antibodies against the infection already.
Moreover, there have been hardly any new cases among migrant workers, as the new infections in Singapore have mostly been imported ones.
Singapore Government Announces Phase 3 Effective 28th December 2020
December 15, 2020
The below statement is as-written by the Ministry of Health
As we have made good progress on the key enablers supporting further resumption of activities, the Multi-Ministry Taskforce will start Phase Three of re-opening from 28 December 2020. Even as we cross this milestone, we must continue to remain vigilant in the coming months and avoid an uncontrolled resurgence of cases which could slow or even reverse our progress.
UPDATE ON ENABLERS FOR MOVING INTO PHASE THREE
2. The Multi-Ministry Taskforce had outlined three pre-conditions for moving into Phase Three, which each of us has contributed to in the past few months:
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed an additional 16 cases of Covid-19 in Singapore as of 12pm on Tuesday (Dec. 15).
This brings the total number of cases to 58,341. There are no new cases in the community.
15 imported cases
There are 15 imported cases, who had been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore.
Among the 15 imported cases, three (Cases 58554, 58555 and 58558) are Singaporeans who returned from India, as well as the U.K. and U.S.
Six are Work Pass (Case 58563) or Work Permit (Cases 58564, 58565, 58566, 58567 and 58568) holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from Brazil, India and Indonesia.
Another two are a Dependant’s Pass holders (Case 58553) who arrived from Spain and a Student’s Pass holder (Case 58556) who arrived from India.