2 community infections among 22 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Two new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported in Singapore as of noon on Monday (Feb 8), said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its preliminary daily update.

Both cases were in the community, and no new infections were reported in foreign workers' dormitories.

Twenty imported cases were reported, all of whom were placed on stay-home notice upon their arrival in Singapore, said the ministry. 

Details of the new cases will be released on Monday night, MOH said. 

FIRST LIKELY CASE OF COVID-19 RE-INFECTION

A 28-year-old Bangladeshi work permit holder residing in a dormitory became Singapore’s first likely case of COVID-19 re-infection, said MOH on Saturday. 

The mas was confirmed to have the coronavirus on Apr 12 last year, and had recovered and tested negative for COVID-19 from last June onwards. But on Jan 25 this year, he tested positive again. 

"He was identified from rostered monitoring testing conducted as part of MOH’s surveillance of recovered workers to monitor their postinfection immunity," said the ministry.

The man was warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and all his identified close contacts have been isolated and quarantined.

SNEC EMPLOYEE GIVEN 5 DOSES OF COVID-19 VACCINE

On Saturday, the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) said one of its employees was wrongly administered the equivalent of five doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine due to a human error. 

The error happened on Jan 14 during a vaccination exercise conducted at SNEC for its staff members.

“The error was discovered within minutes of the vaccination when the staff (member) was resting in a designated area after vaccination,” said SNEC on Saturday.

“Senior doctors were alerted immediately and the staff (member) was assessed and found to be well, with no adverse reaction or side effects.”

READ: Getting more than the recommended dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine unlikely to be harmful: MOH

As a precaution, the affected employee was warded at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) for observation. 

MOH said receiving more than the recommended dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely to be harmful.

It added that the incident at SNEC was an isolated one, and that it has not been notified of any similar incidents at other vaccination sites.

As of Monday, Singapore has reported a total of 59,721 COVID-19 cases.

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