14 new community COVID-19 cases in Singapore, including 4 unlinked infections

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 14 new COVID-19 cases in the community as of noon on Saturday (Jun 19), including four with no links to previous cases.

The other 10 cases were linked to previous cases. Seven of them were already in quarantine and three were detected through surveillance testing, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily preliminary update.

There were also seven imported cases, all of whom had been placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon their arrival in Singapore. All were returning Singaporeans or permanent residents.

No new infections were reported in migrant workers' dormitories.

In all, Singapore reported 21 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday.

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

As of Saturday, Singapore has reported a total of 62,403 COVID-19 cases and 34 fatalities from the disease.

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ADJUSTMENT OF REOPENING PLANS

Dining in at F&B outlets will resume from Monday in groups of up to two people instead of five as previously planned.

The group size of two will also apply to indoor fitness activities with masks off.

The adjusted measures under Phase 3 (Heightened Alert) were announced on Friday, amid the emergence of “a small and persistent number of unlinked cases”.

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The Health Ministry also said that data from the TraceTogether and SafeEntry systems will be used to strengthen the country’s ringfencing around cases to prevent large clusters from arising.

As part of this, “Health Alerts” via SMS will be sent to people who visited hotspots on the same days as the infected cases and may have been exposed to the virus.

These individuals will be required to undergo mandatory testing at designated testing centres and stay isolated until they receive their results.

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