Tuas View Dormitory was gazetted an isolation area on Apr 17 under the Infectious Diseases Act. That notification was revoked on Aug 4.
More than 1,500 cases had been linked to the cluster at Tuas View Dormitory before it was declared to be cleared of COVID-19.
Of the 43 cases in dormitories, 26 were identified earlier as contacts of previous cases and were quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status, said MOH.
The remaining 17 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as MOH's biweekly Rostered Routine Testing of workers living in dormitories and testing of those with acute respiratory infection symptoms.
"This allows us to pick up cases early, including asymptomatic ones, so that we are able to ring-fence them quickly to prevent further transmission, by aggressively containing, tracing and isolating the close contacts," said MOH.
Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, serological tests were conducted to determine if some of these cases were current or past infections.
Serological test results for 11 cases have come back positive, which "indicate likely past infections", said the ministry.
Tuas View Dormitory was gazetted an isolation area on Apr 17 under the Infectious Diseases Act. That notification was revoked on Aug 4.
More than 1,500 cases had been linked to the cluster at Tuas View Dormitory before it was declared to be cleared of COVID-19.
Of the 43 cases in dormitories, 26 were identified earlier as contacts of previous cases and were quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status, said MOH.
The remaining 17 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as MOH's biweekly Rostered Routine Testing of workers living in dormitories and testing of those with acute respiratory infection symptoms.
"This allows us to pick up cases early, including asymptomatic ones, so that we are able to ring-fence them quickly to prevent further transmission, by aggressively containing, tracing and isolating the close contacts," said MOH.
Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, serological tests were conducted to determine if some of these cases were current or past infections.
Serological test results for 11 cases have come back positive, which "indicate likely past infections", said the ministry.