SIA cabin crew member who travelled to US is sole community case

A Singapore Airlines cabin crew member who works as a part-time private-hire driver with Grab was the sole Covid-19 case in the community confirmed yesterday, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

There were also four new imported cases, taking Singapore's total to 58,529.

The community case is a 48-year-old Singaporean man who is asymptomatic and was detected through proactive testing arranged by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore for air crew who had returned from overseas flights.

He recently travelled to the US for work from Dec 12 to 16 on a controlled itinerary, said MOH. He was tested on Dec 23, and his test result came back inconclusive on Dec 25.

This necessitated a second test on the same day, which was also inconclusive. He had remained at home while awaiting further tests.

On Sunday, his swab came back positive for Covid-19 and he was taken in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases that day.

His serological test result is negative, which indicates a likely current infection.

The cabin crew on the same US flight as him have all tested negative for Covid-19 infection on Dec 23.

MOH added it has classified this case as a locally transmitted because of the relatively long time interval between the patient's travel and his positive test, and that epidemiological investigations are in progress.

A restaurant in Upper Paya Lebar Road was also added to the places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious.

Yu Cun Claypot Curry Fish Head was visited by a patient on Dec 18 between 1.25pm and 2.25pm.

Of the four imported cases, three are Singaporeans who returned from India, Myanmar and Britain.

The remaining case is a dependant's pass holder who arrived from India.

By the numbers

5 New cases

29 Deaths

1 New case in community

16 Discharged yesterday

4 Imported cases

35 In hospital

58529 Total cases

58371 Total recovered