Covid-19 second wave starting at dormitories

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Just after the govt declared that all dorms have been tested and cleared of covid-19



New Covid-19 cases detected at cleared dormitories; workers in dorms to be swabbed every 14 days

Two new cases were linked to Kian Teck Hostel.ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Clement Yong


SINGAPORE - There have been new cases detected at dormitories declared to be cleared of the coronavirus and the authorities are monitoring the situation to manage the risk of new outbreaks.

A joint statement by the Ministry of Manpower, the Building and Construction Authority, the Economic Development Board and the Health Promotion Board on Tuesday (Aug 11) pointed to fresh infections in cleared dormitories without providing any details on the numbers affected.

It said that safeguards have been put in place to make sure that the intensive efforts spent over the past four months on the dormitories so far do not go to waste.

This comes as the construction, marine and process sectors look to restart work.

"With more daily movements in and out of the dormitories, it is even more important for everyone to remain vigilant to guard against new infections," the joint statement said.

For instance, six new cases were linked to Kian Teck Dormitory while two others were linked to Kian Teck Hostel, according to the Ministry of Health's update on Monday.

Both had been cleared of the virus by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

The joint statement on Tuesday said the measures to ensure workers can safely restart work include requiring them to report their temperature and any symptoms of acute respiratory illness through an app twice a day.

Workers in dormitories and those who work onsite in the construction, marine and process sectors will also have to be swab tested once every 14 days.

Employers should space out the testing of their workers over the 14-day period so that the authorities are able to "maintain constant surveillance of the Covid-19 situation". Workers who have recovered from Covid-19 are not required to undergo regular testing for 180 days.

Other measures include staggered pick-up and drop-off times for workers to and from their work sites, updating the workers' residence addresses, and minimising mixing between blocks.

Wastewater from higher risk dormitories are also closely monitored for traces of the Covid-19 virus, and the number of migrant workers who report sick at any particular medical post tracked as possible early indications of possible clusters.

Plans are in place to quickly quarantine and isolate at risk workers if a potential infection surface.

Singapore completed testing all 323,000 workers in dorms for Covid-19 on Aug 7, with about nine in 10 workers having recovered or been found to be free of the coronavirus as of last week.

 

[Leongsam]

Testing positive does not mean they are infected as the test often picks up dead bit of genetic material resulting in a false reading.

news-medical.net

Dead virus fragments are causing COVID-19 reinfection false positives
By Angela Betsaida B. Laguipo, BSNMay 4 2020

5-6 minutes


The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has ravaged across the globe, infecting a staggering 3.5 million people, and taking over 251,000 lives. One of the most significant concerns in this global pandemic is the possibility of reinfection as previous reports in South Korea and Japan show people testing positive with the coronavirus again.
Now, a team of South Korean researchers has revealed that reports of recovered coronavirus patients testing positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection a second time round are due to testing errors and not actually reinfection.

Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (round blue objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. SARS-CoV-2, also known as 2019-nCoV, is the virus that causes COVID-19. The virus shown was isolated from a patient in the U.S. Image captured and colorized at NIAID's Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana. Credit: NIAID
Dead virus fragments
The country’s infectious disease experts said that dead-virus fragments were most likely cause positive results for SARS-CoV-2 infection among 260 people who have recovered from the disease. The tests even showed the presence of these fragments even weeks after making full recoveries.
Oh Myoung-don, who spearheads the central clinical committee for emerging disease control in South Korea, said there was little reason to believe the cases had emerged from reactivation of the virus or reinfection.
“The tests detected the ribonucleic acid of the dead virus,” Dr. Oh, who is also a hospital doctor at the Seoul National University, explained.
The conventional test used to detect SARS-CoV-2 is the polymerase chain reaction test or PCR test. However, there are technical limitations to the test. It cannot distinguish whether the virus in the patient is alive or dead.
“PCR testing that amplifies genetics of the virus is used in Korea to test COVID-19, and relapse cases are due to technical limits of the PCR testing. The respiratory epithelial cell has a half-life of up to three months, and RNA virus in the cell can be detected with PCR testing one to two months after the elimination of the cell,” Dr. Oh explained.
So far, there were more than 260 people who tested positive again in South Korea. These patients have recovered and were declared virus-free.
The new report confirmed a previous assessment of the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that patients who tested positive again had little or no contagiousness at all. This means that they cannot transmit the virus to others, based on virus culture cells that all failed to find live viruses in recovered patients.