Early tests have detected two more Covid-19 cases in Singapore infected by the Omicron coronavirus variant. One is an airport front-line worker and the other is an imported infection.

In a news release on Thursday (Dec 9) night, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the two patients are both fully vaccinated and have received their booster shots.

“One is asymptomatic while the other has mild symptoms. Both cases are recovering in isolation wards at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).”

It added that it is now conducting “aggressive contact tracing to ringfence the cases”.

In total so far, five cases of Omicron infections have been detected here, with two of them being confirmed after the National Public Health Laboratory has completed whole genome sequencing.

MOH said that the local case a 24-year-old Singaporean woman who works as a passenger service staff member at Changi Airport Terminals 1 and 3.

The woman had worked at a transit holding area, where she may have interacted with transit passengers from Omicron-affected countries.

MOH said that the woman did not work at Terminal 4, where three earlier cases of Omicron infections had been.

The woman was tested for Covid-19 on Wednesday as part of the weekly rostered routine testing of front-line workers involved in checkpoint operations.

Her polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result revealed the presence of S-gene Target Failure, which may be associated with the Omicron variant, MOH said.

The woman, who did not have any symptoms, “may have been in the early stages of infection”, it added.

“Upon being notified of her positive test result, she self-isolated at home until conveyance to NCID. The National Public Health Laboratory is conducting whole genome sequencing to confirm the variant."

The other case is a 46-year-old permanent resident who returned to Singapore via the vaccinated travel lane from Germany on board Singapore Airlines flight SQ325 on Monday.

MOH said that the woman’s pre-departure test in France on Dec 4 was negative for Covid-19.

Her PCR test on Dec 6 also came back negative.

“On Dec 7, she developed a runny nose and sought medical treatment on Dec 8. She tested positive for Covid-19 on the same day and was confirmed to have S-gene Target Failure on Dec 9,” MOH added.

Contact tracing for both cases are ongoing.

“All close contacts of the cases will be placed on 10-day quarantine at designated facilities and undergo PCR tests at the start and end of their quarantine.

“All airport staff are already PCR-tested every seven days. As an additional precautionary measure, they will also be required to conduct daily antigen rapid tests for the next seven days,” MOH said.

The ministry also said that given the virus strain's high transmissibility and spread to many parts of the world, Singapore should expect to find more Omicron cases at its borders and also within the community.

“It is important for everyone to continue to play their part and remain vigilant to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, and to come forward to receive your vaccination or booster dose when offered.”

Besides the two Omicron cases that were confirmed here after genome sequencing, MOH said last Sunday that one other case have tested positive preliminarily for the variant on that day.

This was a 37-year-old Singapore permanent resident who arrived here on Dec 1 from South Africa, on board Singapore Airlines flight SQ479. It was recorded as an imported infection.

The man was on the same flight as two confirmed Omicron cases, which were the first such infections to be detected in Singapore.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by ASYRAF KAMIL

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