SINGAPORE – There are 247 new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Wednesday noon (June 17), taking Singapore’s total to 41,216.

They include five community cases, comprising two Singaporeans or permanent residents and three work pass holders, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wednesday.

Migrant workers living in dormitories make up the vast majority of the other cases on Wednesday, said the MOH.

More details will be announced on Wednesday night.

On Tuesday, the number of new daily coronavirus patients here and the average number of new cases in the community each day continued to fall, ahead of the further reopening of Singapore’s economy from Friday.

This comes as the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Tuesday that 42 more dormitories housing about 4,000 migrant workers have been cleared of Covid-19.

While the daily number of new patients on Sunday was 407, it was 214 on Monday and 151 on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s figure was also the lowest number of new cases reported in over two months, after the 142 cases on April 8.

The MOH said on Tuesday that the average number of new daily community cases had dropped from nine cases two weeks ago to seven in the past week.

The figure was on the uptick from June 4, after circuit breaker measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus ended on June 1.

It stabilised on Sunday before falling on Monday, and again on Tuesday, making it the second day in a row that the number had dropped.

The average number of unlinked community cases per day over the same period, too, fell from four to three.

Of the 151 new Covid-19 cases announced on Tuesday, two work permit holders were the only community cases.

The two men, aged 25 and 39, are asymptomatic patients who were detected by the MOH’s active screening of those working in essential services. Both are currently unlinked to previous cases.

Further tests by the ministry showed that one of the cases was likely infected some time ago, as he is no longer infectious.

Results for the other case are pending.

Migrant workers staying in dormitories made up the remaining 149 cases.

Twenty-six people have died from complications due to the coronavirus. Another 10 people who tested positive for the coronavirus have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 8.26 million people. More than 446,000 people have died.