In recent days, a Covid-19 cluster at Bukit Merah View Market & Food Centre has turned into Singapore’s largest open cluster.
As of 19 Jun, there are now 70 cases detected in the cluster.
Another 5 cases were added yesterday, including a technical executive working at Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP).
Saturday (19 Jun)’s Ministry of Health (MOH) Covid-19 update saw 5 cases added to the burgeoning active cluster.
Case 64319 is a 42-year-old woman who works as a technical executive at NYP.
She developed a cough on 12 Jun followed by a sore throat the next day.
On 14 Jun, she went to a polyclinic and was tested there — but the result was negative.
Subsequently, she was identified as a close contact of an 87-year-old man who frequently visited 115 and 116 Bukit Merah View and placed on quarantine on 16 Jun.
She was tested again and this time the test returned positive on 18 Jun.
Her serology test is negative for the N antigen, possibly indicating early infection. She is fully vaccinated as well, receiving her 1st dose on 29 Mar and the 2nd one on 26 April.
Other new cases in the cluster include Case 64322, a 45-year-old who works at Paxxus Pte Ltd as an operations staff.
She was quarantined on 14 Jun as she’s a close contact of Case 64231.
She initially tested negative for a Covid-19 test on 16 Jun following her quarantine, but she developed symptoms and was tested again. This time, it returned positive on 18 Jun.
3 cases detected through surveillance were Case 64321 — an 81-year-old man who’s a retiree. He was tested as part of surveillance on 17 Jun and the test returned positive on 18 Jun.
He’s fully vaccinated, having received his 1st dose on 13 Mar and 2nd on 3 Apr.
Case 64329 is a domestic worker and is asymptomatic, and Case 64334 had a sore throat on 13 Jun, followed by fever, cough and body aches on 19 Jun. The latter works at J. Roger Preston Ltd in an administrative role.
With increased testing in place to ringfence the Bukit Merah View cluster, it’s likely we’ll see more cases in the next few days.
Much will depend on the ability to keep this cluster in check for other places to reopen safely. With constant lockdowns not an option, authorities will have to test more and vaccinate more to bring Singapore to a ‘new normal’.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.
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