MOH investigating Covid-19 infections among Vietnamese social hostesses

SINGAPORE - The Health Ministry (MOH) is investigating Covid-19 infections among a group of Vietnamese social hostesses who had frequented KTV lounges or clubs now operating as food and beverage outlets.

Their close social contacts are also being looked at, MOH said on Monday (July 12) in a statement.

It said: “To quickly uncover any community infection cases, we will be conducting special testing operations for all staff of Supreme KTV (Far East Shopping Centre), Empress KTV (Tanglin Shopping Centre) and Club Dolce (Balestier Point).”

It added that it will extend free Covid-19 testing to members of the public who visited the three outlets, any similar lounges or clubs operating as food and beverage outlets, as well as those who interacted with the Vietnamese social hostesses in any setting between June 29 and Monday.

MOH said there were two new Covid-19 clusters declared on Monday.

Three cases were detected in the first cluster, and four in the other cluster.

Eight new locally transmitted cases were detected on Monday as well.

Five of them have been linked to previous cases, and three are unlinked.

There were also 18 imported cases who have been placed on stay-home notice or isolated on arrival in Singapore.

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Of these cases, 13 were detected upon arrival in Singapore, while five cases developed the illness while they were serving their stay-home notice or during isolation.

In total, 26 new coronavirus cases as at noon on Monday were confirmed, taking Singapore’s total to 62,718.

The number of new cases in the community has fallen to 19 in the past week – from 28 the week before – while the number of unlinked cases in the community has increased to 10 in the past week, from four in the week before, MOH said.

There are now 22 active Covid-19 clusters – each with between three and 94 infections each – up from 20 on Sunday.

Of the 80 patients who remain in hospital, most are well and under observation.

There are two people in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU) while six require oxygen supplementation.

Over the last 28 days, 22 local cases required oxygen supplementation, were admitted to the ICU or died. 

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Of these, 18 were not vaccinated, four were partially vaccinated and none was fully vaccinated.

“There is continuing evidence that vaccination helps to prevent serious disease when one gets infected,” MOH said.

Singapore has had 36 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

A total of 6,304,415 doses of Covid-19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme have been administered, covering 3,981,886 people, as at Sunday. 

Of these, 2,322,529 people received their second dose and have completed the full vaccination process.

Read the full MOH press release here.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.