SINGAPORE, Dec 11 — Singapore has detected three more COVID-19 cases that have tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant, one is a local case involving another airport frontline worker, and the other two are imported.
“All three cases are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, and recovering in isolation wards at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID),” said the republic’s Ministry of Health (MOH) in a statement issued late Friday.
The first case involved a 38-year old male who works as a passenger service staff at the departure gates of Changi Airport Terminal.
Labelled as Case 276839, he did not interact with the three earlier Omicron cases, said the ministry.
“There are no known links to the earlier reported case – Case 276363 – who is also a Changi Airport passenger service staff,” it added.
He was tested for COVID-19 on Dec 9 as part of weekly Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) for border frontline workers, and his polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result came back preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant.
“He was asymptomatic and upon being notified of his positive test result, he has self-isolated at home,” MOH said.
The second and third cases meanwhile returned to Singapore via a Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) from the United Kingdom (UK) on Dec 8.
The ministry noted that both had not interacted during the flight.
On a separate statement, the republic will use the paediatric doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years.
“Vaccination for this group will commence before the end of this year, once we receive deliveries of the vaccine doses,” it said.
MOH noted that the recommended dosage is one-third of that used in persons aged 12 and above — two paediatric doses of 10 micrograms each — that are spaced at least 21 days apart.
The ministry will also extend the vaccination booster programme to individuals aged 18 to 29 years from Dec 14.
To date, 96 per cent of the eligible population here have completed their full regimen or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines while 30 per cent of the total population have received their booster shots.
