Singapore reports 11 new Covid-19 cases

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Friday reported the lowest number of 11 new Covid-19 cases in six months as the national tally of infections reached 57,543, the health ministry said.
Of the new cases, one is from the community who is a Singaporean and another is an imported case placed on stay-home notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, the ministry of health (MOH) said.
This is the lowest daily figure since March 12 when nine new Covid-19 cases were reported, according to the Channel News Asia.
The total number of cases in Singapore has reached 57,543, the ministry said.
The two imported cases, reported on Thursday, came from France on September 4 and India on September 5.
The two are under 14-day SHN and were tested while serving their isolation period at dedicated facilities. With 84 cases discharged on Thursday, 57,039 patients have fully recovered from the disease, while 43 patients remained in hospital and 423 were recuperating in community facilities.
Meanwhile, Singapore is conducting field tests on foreign workers on the use of saliva to detect Covid-19 as the health authorities assess if it can be scaled for widespread use.
The study, which took place from June 2 to June 26, was conducted among 200 migrant workers who were recruited from community care facilities and those living in dormitories for foreign workers.
The MOH on Thursday said that it is assessing factors such as consistency and integrity of sample collection, efficiency of laboratory processes, and the ability to cater for high volumes of tests via pooled testing, The Straits Times reported.
It said that most samples for Covid-19 testing are collected through nasopharyngeal (back of the nose) or oropharyngeal (back of the throat) swabs, which can be pooled, thus allowing for high volumes of tests to be efficiently processed daily.
Pooled tests involve using one Covid-19 test on a group of suspect cases, and if it yields a positive result, all individuals who were part of the group will be individually tested to determine the infections.
The MOH added that its preliminary findings showed saliva testing may be "slightly more comfortable for some individuals", though mechanisms to scale up testing in laboratories, including pooled testing, are still being developed.
In a study led by associate professor Hsu Li Yang, programme leader of infectious diseases and co-director of global health at the National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, it was shown that saliva testing through secretions taken from the back of throat can be a viable method for Covid-19 testing.