COVID-19 PANDEMIC: 142 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including one in community involving prison inmate

SINGAPORE – There are 142 new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Friday noon (June 19), taking Singapore’s total to 41,615.

They include the sole community case involving a prison inmate on social visit pass, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday. He had been segregated from the general inmate population since his admission to Changi Prison Complex on June 6 and tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.

All the prison inmates who were admitted to Changi Prison on the same day as he was have tested negative for the coronavirus.

They are being closely monitored and will have to undergo another swab test before they are allowed to join the general inmate population.

Singapore Prison Service (SPS) staff members who manage new admissions also remain well and are taking the necessary precautions, including wearing personal protective equipment, SPS said in response to The Straits Times’ queries on Friday.

Friday’s new patient figure of 142 is the lowest since April 8, when there were also 142 cases.

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

More details will be announced on Friday night.

On Thursday, MOH announced a new coronavirus cluster – a dormitory at 10 Tech Park Crescent in Tuas.

The cluster includes two new Covid-19 patients confirmed on Thursday. They were linked to two previous cases, meaning that the cluster has four cases, MOH said on Thursday.

It was the first time a new cluster was announced after no new clusters were found for two successive days.

A total of 257 new Covid-19 patients were confirmed on Thursday by the ministry, taking Singapore’s total to 41,473.

This included four community cases – one permanent resident (PR) and three work permit holders. The three work permit holders were already in quarantine when they tested positive for Covid-19.

They had been identified as close contacts of previous cases and were swabbed to verify their status. Two of them are asymptomatic.

The PR, a 38-year-old man, was picked up by MOH’s active screening of those working in essential services. He was also asymptomatic.

Further tests showed that three of the four cases were likely infected some time ago and were no longer infectious. The test result for the remaining case is pending.

Migrant workers staying in dormitories made up the remaining 253 cases.

Thursday’s figure was slightly higher than the 247 cases reported on Wednesday but was lower than the daily average of 321 in the seven days before.

The average number of new daily community cases has also come down from eight cases two weeks ago to seven in the past week. The average number of unlinked community cases per day has fallen from four to three over the same period.

Singapore has had 26 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 10 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 8.57 million people.