24-Year-Old Passenger Service Staff Tests Positive; Contact Tracing Underway
A 24-year-old female Singaporean airport worker may have become the first local case of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported on December 10. The woman, who serves as a passenger service staff member at Changi Airport’s Terminals 1 and 3, tested positive for Covid-19 on December 8 during her routine testing as a border frontline worker.
Her positive result, detected through the Rostered Routine Testing (RRT), revealed S-gene Target Failure, a potential marker of the Omicron variant. Although asymptomatic at the time, the woman was immediately isolated and later transferred to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) for further treatment. Whole genome sequencing is underway to confirm the variant. It is believed that she may have interacted with transit passengers from Omicron-affected regions during her work at the airport’s transit holding area.
The second reported Omicron case is an imported one. A 46-year-old Singapore Permanent Resident returned from Germany via the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) on December 6. Despite testing negative upon arrival, she developed symptoms on December 7 and subsequently tested positive on December 8. Confirmed with S-gene Target Failure the following day, she is currently in isolation.
Both individuals are fully vaccinated, including receiving their booster shots. The Ministry of Health has initiated thorough contact tracing for both cases. Close contacts have been placed under a 10-day quarantine, with PCR tests at the start and end of the quarantine period. As an additional safety measure, all airport staff will now be required to undergo daily antigen rapid tests for the next seven days. MOH anticipates more Omicron cases at Singapore’s borders and within the community, given the variant’s high transmissibility.
