90 employees, residents of nursing home tested after ex-worker is infected

A total of 90 employees and residents at a nursing home were tested for Covid-19 after an ex-staff member who went back to the Philippines became infected.

All the results from those swabbed at the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home in Silat Avenue came back negative, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) last night.

The MOH said it had been informed that a care staff member who previously worked at the home had tested positive for Covid-19 on Aug 30 in the Philippines.

Her last day at the nursing home was Aug 26, and she had not displayed any acute respiratory infection symptoms while she was at work.

As a precautionary measure, MOH and the Agency for Integrated Care worked with the home to test 90 employees and residents who were identified as possible contacts of the case.

This was not the first infection at the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home.

On March 31, the first coronavirus case was confirmed at its branch in Thomson Lane. A total of 16 workers and residents were subsequently infected.

There were 41 new cases confirmed yesterday, taking Singapore's total to 56,812.

They included three community cases comprising one work pass holder and two work permit holders, said MOH.

There were also seven imported cases, comprising two Singaporeans, four permanent residents and a work permit holder.

The six Singaporeans and PRs had returned to Singapore from India between Aug 17 and Aug 19, and Malaysia on Aug 17. The remaining case is currently employed in Singapore and had arrived from India on Aug 19.

All of them had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore.

No new locations or new clusters were added to the list of places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were infectious, MOH said yesterday.

The average number of new daily cases in the community in a week has increased from two cases two weeks ago to three in the past week.

 

---

By the number

41

New cases

3

New cases in community

7

Imported cases

56,812

Total cases

27 

Deaths

72

Discharged yesterday

55,643

Total recorvered

78

Total in hospital