People with COVID-19 display symptoms similar to pneumonia. They include but are not limited to:
Suspect case definition in Singapore (Updated as of June 5, 2021)
According to the Ministry of Health, the suspect case definition for COVID-19 are as follows and apply regardless of vaccination status:
- A person with clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of Community-Acquired Pneumonia1;
- A person with an acute respiratory infection of any degree of severity with or without fever,
(e.g. symptoms of cough, sore throat, runny nose, anosmia), OR with a fever alone without any obvious localizing symptoms or signs, who within 14 days before onset of illness had:
- Travelled abroad (outside Singapore); OR
- Close contact2 with a case of COVID-19 infection; OR
- Worked in occupations or environments with higher risk of exposure to COVID-19 cases3; OR
- Exposure to the premises where large active clusters were located4
(refer to https://go.gov.sg/case-criteria-cluster);
- A person with prolonged acute respiratory infection (PARI) symptoms of 4 days or more, not recovering AND who had not undergone prior swabbing for ARI symptoms in the same episode of illness (under the enhanced SASH criteria);
- A person with an acute respiratory illness of any degree of severity (with or without fever) OR with a fever alone without any obvious localizing symptoms or signs, who tests positive on an Antigen Rapid Test (ART).
1 Excludes cases of nosocomial pneumonia and aspiration pneumonia with no links to confirmed cases.
2 Close contact is defined as:
- Anyone who provided care for the patient, including a health care worker or family member, or anyone who had other similarly close physical contact;
- Anyone who stayed (e.g. household members) at the same place as a case; or
- Anyone who had close contact (i.e. less than 2 metres and 15 min or more) with a case (e.g. shared a meal).
3 These include but are not limited to any staff (healthcare worker or non-healthcare worker) working in:
- Public and private healthcare settings; spanning acute care, primary care, intermediate and long-term care and community care settings
- Community care facilities (CCFs)
- Ambulance and dedicated patient transport (including private hire vehicles)
- Frontline dormitory outbreak control, Stay Home Notice (SHN) or Quarantine operations
- Frontline operations at airports, seaports or land borders
4 Persons who were at the premises during the specified dates, indicated on https://go.gov.sg/case-criteria-cluster based on (a) an exposure alert for the premise on their TraceTogether App, (b) SMS alert sent by MOH or (c) self-declaration.
