SINGAPORE: A resident of a foreign worker dormitory has become Singapore’s first likely cases of COVID-19 re-infection, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Saturday (Feb 6).
The case is a 28-year-old Bangladeshi work permit holder who lives in a dormitory at 43 Tech Park Crescent.
AdvertisementAdvertisement"He was identified from rostered monitoring testing conducted as part of MOH’s surveillance of recovered workers to monitor their postinfection immunity," said the ministry.
The man was first confirmed to have had COVID-19 on Apr 12 last year and was identified as Case 2513. He recovered from the infection and tested negative for COVID-19 from last June onwards.
However, the man tested positive for COVID-19 once again on Jan 25 this year, and he was isolated. Multiple repeat tests were conducted subsequently and were also positive, MOH said.
The man reported feeling unwell on Jan 22 and 23, but was otherwise asymptomatic, said MOH.
AdvertisementAdvertisementHe is currently warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and all his identified close contacts have been isolated and quarantined. None have tested positive for COVID-19 so far.
As Case 2513, the man was part of a cluster of COVID-19 infections at the Tech Park Crescent dormitory, which is located at 43 Tech Park Crescent.
“While re-infection is rare, the expert panel, which comprises infectious diseases and microbiology experts from NCID, Singapore General Hospital and the National Public Health Laboratory, has assessed that the clinical and laboratory evidence suggests that this is a likely case of re-infection,” MOH said.
“In addition to his positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results, there was a corresponding marked increase in antibody titres compared to the period prior to the likely re-infection, suggesting that he was exposed to a new infection which boosted his antibody levels.
Advertisement“The virus detected in his samples taken in January 2021 is also genetically distinct from that associated with the dormitories outbreak in 2020, suggesting that this is likely a different and new infection.”
MOH said that it will continue to monitor recovered COVID-19 cases to determine their post-infection immunity. No significant loss of post-infection immunity has been detected among recovered workers in dormitories so far.
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