SINGAPORE – There were 81 new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Saturday noon (Aug 15), including 10 imported ones from a vessel that arrived in Singapore on Aug 8.

Prior to being taken to the hospital, all crew members had not disembarked from the vessel, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

There were a total of 16 imported cases as of Saturday noon. The number of new infections takes Singapore’s total to 55,661.

The rest of the imported cases had all been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore.

Also included in the new infection numbers were three community cases comprising two Singaporeans or permanent residents and one work pass holder.

Work permit holders currently under quarantine made up the vast majority of the other cases.

More details will be announced on Saturday night.

On Friday, no new Covid-19 cases in the community were reported, for the first time since June 1.

But a one-year-old boy was among the four imported Covid-19 patients. He is an Indian national and a dependant’s pass holder.

He was asymptomatic when tested on arrival but on Wednesday, he tested positive. Another dependant’s pass holder, also an Indian national who had returned from India, was among the imported patients. The last two imported cases arrived from India on Aug 2. They are work pass holders who are currently employed in Singapore.

The ministry said all of them were on 14-day stay-home notices on arrival in Singapore and were tested while serving their notices.

Migrant workers staying in dormitories made up the remaining 79 new Covid-19 patients announced on Friday.

Six clusters in dormitories were closed as the dorms have been cleared by the inter-agency task force, and now house only recovered individuals and those who have tested negative recently for Covid-19 infection.

With 313 cases discharged on Friday, 51,034 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

Singapore has had 27 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 21 million people. More than 762,000 people have died.