Unlinked infections on rise in Singapore
Thousands to be tested as city state records new clusters, including cases with variant
Singapore will test thousands of people for Covid-19 as the number of infections unlinked to current clusters continue to rise.
Three Changi Airport employees and a junior college student were among those who tested positive for the virus in recent days, the health ministry said. The government will expand testing to all workers at two of the airport’s terminals and its Jewel shopping centre, and all students, staff and visitors at the junior college.
Singapore had seen 10 cases per week of unlinked cases in the community in the past two weeks, the government said on Saturday. Yesterday, it reported an additional 10 new infections, five of which were unlinked to previous cases.
The Ministry of Education said about 2,200 people associated with Victoria Junior College would undergo swab tests by today, while just over 100 people who were close contacts would be quarantined.
The health ministry did not provide the number of people who would be tested at Changi Airport Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, and Jewel.
The threat had been easing for Singapore until a few weeks ago when new clusters started to emerge including cases with the variant of Covid-19 first detected in India. Tighter social-distancing measures were implemented on Saturday with officials saying they were necessary to prevent a harsher lockdown similar to the one last year.
A rise in unlinked cases in Singapore could jeopardise a planned travel bubble with Hong Kong, expected to begin on May 26. According to the terms of the agreement, the air-travel corridor will be closed for two weeks if the seven-day moving average of the daily number of unlinked local cases is more than five in either city.
In Australia, the state of New South Wales recorded no new Covid-19 infections for a third straight day yesterday but extended social-distancing and maskwearing rules by a week until next Monday as authorities hunted for the source of a small outbreak.
“As the ‘missing link’ case hasn’t been identified we’re keen to prevent a super-spreading event,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in a tweet. “All safeguards/restrictions will be in place for an extra week, except for shoppers in retail who will no longer be required to wear a mask.”
That means the more than 5 million people living in and around Sydney must wear masks on public transport and in most public venues, while households are limited to 20 guests at any one time until May 17.