COVID-19 “The 2019 Plague” Day 154: SINGAPORE- Singapore reports 528 new cases of COVID-19, taking total to 14,951
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SINGAPORE (CNA) – Singapore reported 528 new COVID-19 cases as of noon yesterday, bringing the national total to 14,951. The vast majority of the new cases are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories, Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its preliminary update.
Eight of the new cases are Singaporeans or permanent residents.
“We are still working through the details of the cases and further updates will be shared via the MOH press release that will be issued tonight,” the ministry added. Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said on Monday that scaling up the capacity to test for COVID-19 will be a “key enabler” for Singapore to move beyond the “circuit breaker” period.
He added that authorities are starting to more regularly test workers in the essential sectors and frontline officers who come into close contact with confirmed cases. Health Minister Gan Kim Yong on Monday noted that the continued presence of unlinked cases means there is still underlying COVID-19 transmission in the community that has not been detected.
“Even as we remove the circuit breaker measures, we need to do it progressively. We need to do so in a safe way to prevent the resurgence of new cases and new clusters, which will be another problem again,” said Gan.
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RELATED STORY:
511 of 528 new Covid-19 cases are foreign workers from dormitories
SINGAPORE – Foreign workers continued to account for most of the 528 new Covid-19 cases here on Tuesday (April 28), taking the total count to 14,951.
This is the lowest daily increase in new cases in Singapore in nearly two weeks since April 15, which had 447 new cases.
Of the new cases on Tuesday, 83 per cent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).
Tuesday’s numbers included 511 foreign workers staying in dormitories, said MOH.
Most of them have mild illness and are being monitored in community isolation facilities or general wards of hospitals. None is in the intensive care unit.
There are now 12,694 foreign workers from dorms diagnosed with Covid-19, or 3.9 per cent of the 323,000 dorm residents here.
Meanwhile, those not staying in dorms made up seven cases.
The number of such cases has fallen – the first time since April 16 – from an average of 25 per day in the week before, to an average of 20 per day in the past week.
There were also 10 other new cases in the community, comprising seven Singaporeans and permanent residents, as well as two work pass holders and one on a visit pass.
MOH had earlier announced on Tuesday afternoon that there were eight Singaporeans and permanent residents among the new cases. However, one of them was reclassified in the ministry’s evening update following contact tracing.
There were no imported cases.
Among the new cases on Tuesday was a 24-year-old nurse from Changi General Hospital. The Singapore permanent resident did not travel to affected countries or regions recently, said MOH.
The man reported the onset of symptoms on Monday, and was confirmed to be infected the same day.
He has not gone to work since, and is warded at Changi General Hospital, said MOH.
It added that the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 28 per day in the week before, to an average of 17 per day in the past week.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has also fallen, from an average of 18 per day in the week before, to an average of 10 per day in the past week.
MOH on Tuesday also announced four new coronavirus clusters, which are linked to 33 Sungei Kadut Loop, 23H Sungei Kadut Street 1, 10 Tagore Drive, and 51H Tuas South Avenue 1.
Singapore’s largest active cluster remains the S11 Dormitory in Punggol, with 2,302 confirmed cases.
Thirty-three more patients were discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 1,128 people have fully recovered.
Currently, 1,689 patients are still in hospital. Most are stable or improving, while 21 are in critical condition. Another 12,120 patients, who have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for the virus, are isolated and cared for at community facilities.
Fourteen people in Singapore have died so far from the virus.
Globally, the coronavirus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected over 3.06 million people. Some 211,000 have died.
The United States is the worst affected country, with more than 980,000 cases and 55,000 deaths from Covid-19 as of Tuesday.
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