Jem, Westgate now a Covid-19 cluster with four cases

This article is more than 12 months old

May 24, 2021 06:00 am

The adjacent malls of Jem and Westgate in Jurong East were declared the centre of a new community cluster yesterday, with four cases now linked to them.

Giving details of these as well as others in the 21 community cases announced yesterday, the Ministry of Health said the four included a music teacher at Yamaha Music School, who developed a fever and sought treatment five days later.

The 59-year-old felt sick on May 16, went to a GP clinic on May 21 and had an antigen rapid test come back positive on the same day. He was immediately isolated.

The other three individuals linked to the cluster include a 39-year-old cleaner at Westgate and a 44-year-old visitor, whose preliminary tests have come back positive for the B1617 variant.

The last is a 31-year-old delivery truck driver who was detected during testing for people who worked in or had visited Jem and Westgate.

The two malls are now closed for two weeks, during which they will be cleaned.

The WHO is currently in the process of conducting an analysis of excess deaths during the pandemic.

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Other community cases include three connected to a large cluster at Changi Airport Terminal 3 - a seven-year-old boy whose family had visited the airport on numerous occasions, a 78-year-old woman linked to the cluster at Tan Tock Seng Hospital; and a four-year-old girl at Heartfield Kindergarten linked to a 53-year-old chauffeur.

Among the new cases is also a 27-year-old woman who works in an administrative role at St Luke's Hospital. She was a close contact of a factory operator at SMS Infocomm, the centre of another cluster.

Of the community cases, 12 were on quarantine when they tested positive.

There were two unlinked community cases. The first is a vaccinated 60-year-old woman detected during testing for residents of Block 506 Hougang Avenue 8. The second is a 74-year-old woman who developed body aches, vomiting and chills on May 19. She sought medical treatment that day but was not tested for Covid-19 as she did not report any acute respiratory infection symptoms.

Her condition worsened on May 22, and she was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. She is also vaccinated.

The last case resides in a dormitory.

This article first appeared in The Straits Times.