Yet another Changi Airport employee has tested positive for the Omicron COVID-19 variant that’s been detected so far in two dozen cases.
Though Singapore’s daily infection rate had slid to a fraction of what they were just weeks ago, fears of another surge are heightened with the health ministry’s discovery of at least 24 cases since last week, including yesterday’s announcement that a 42-year-old Terminal 3 worker was the fourth airport worker to test positive for the variant. Of those, 21 were deemed to be imported cases, while three were locally transmitted.
The fully vaccinated man had no contact with passengers but was in close contact with someone working in the same terminal who tested positive Wednesday, the ministry added. The 42-year-old is currently recovering in an isolation ward at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
Of the four airport staff members, only one 24-year-old passenger service rep working in terminals 1 and 3 interacted with transit passengers from Omicron-affected countries. She was the first local Omicron case detected in Singapore last week.
An outbreak cluster was traced back to the airport back in May.
Anyone coming into close contact with someone infected by Omicron must quarantine 10 days at designated facilities and undergo tests at the start and end of their stay, the ministry said.
Singapore reported 355 cases and one death yesterday, a significant drop since the late-October peak of roughly 3,000 per day. In total, the country has counted 274,972 cases and 808 deaths since the start of the outbreak.
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