From MOH situation report 26 Nov 2020:
a) Cases in the community: 1
There is 1 case in the community today who is currently unlinked. Case 58401 is a Singaporean who works as a Service Engineer at Master Systems Marine Pte Ltd. His job entails going onboard vessels docked at Marina South Pier and West Coast Pier for servicing and maintenance of ships' navigational systems. He typically worked alone, and had no interaction with vessel crew except for a supervising crew member. On days when he was not working onboard vessels, he had remained at his office located at Vertex Building Tower B (33 Ubi Avenue 3). He reported that he wore a surgical mask during his work onboard the vessels and at the office, and that safe distancing and safe management measures were adhered to.
The case developed a fever and sore throat on 23 November night, and sought medical treatment at a General Practitioner clinic the next day, where he was tested for COVID-19 under our enhanced community testing regime. He was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases the following day, when his test came back positive for COVID-19 infection. His serological test has come back negative, indicating that this is a fresh infection.
Epidemiological investigations are in progress. It was revealed that on 21 November, he had dinner with 12 family members at Seoul Garden at Tampines Mall. They had occupied 3 tables and there was mingling between the groups. Amongst those present at the dinner was his 2 year-old niece, who had earlier been issued a 5-day medical certificate (from 20 November to 24 November) for runny nose. She has since been tested negative for COVID-19 infection. Investigations are ongoing to assess if there had been any breach of the relevant safe management measures.
In the meantime, all his identified close contacts (including his family members at the dinner) have been isolated and placed on quarantine and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases. We will also conduct serological tests on his household and family contacts to determine if he could have been infected by them.
We urge everyone to continue to exercise social responsibility, and to cooperate with the prevailing measures. This is yet another reminder that the virus has not been eradicated and that new cases and clusters can easily emerge in our community, if we let our guard down.
