SINGAPORE, Dec 17 — The Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) said 24 confirmed Omicron cases have been detected in the republic as at Thursday (Dec 16), with 21 imported cases and three local cases.
“Given its high transmissibility and spread to many parts of the world, we should expect to find more Omicron cases at our borders and also within our community,” MOH said in a statement late Thursday.
MOH said it has detected one more local COVID-19 case testing preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant on Thursday.
“The case is fully vaccinated and has mild symptoms, and is recovering in an isolation ward at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID),” it said.
MOH noted that it is ringfencing the case through contact tracing.
Labeled as Case 276615, it involved a 42-year old male who works as a loading assistant at Changi Airport Terminal 3 and had no contact with flight passengers.
He developed a fever on Dec 8 and sought medical treatment at a General Practitioner (GP) clinic where he was tested for COVID-19.
His test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection the next day, and he was placed on the Home Recovery Programme.
As he was subsequently identified as a close contact of the previous case, his sample was tested for the Omicron variant on Dec 16 and his test result came back preliminarily positive.
The National Public Health Laboratory is conducting whole-genome sequencing to confirm the variant and contact tracing is ongoing, said the statement.
Singapore reported the first two imported COVID-19 cases confirmed with the Omicron variant on Dec 6, of whom both arrived from Johannesburg on board Singapore Airlines flight SQ479 on Dec 1.
