Half of 18 community cases work at dorms; 463 new COVID-19 infections in S'pore

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed on Friday (12 June) 463 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, bringing the total to 39,850, as well as 754 more recoveries.

Of the new case, 18 cases have been classified as community cases, the highest recorded daily tally of such cases since the start of Singapore’s reopening. They consist of seven Singaporeans, one permanent resident, as well as two work pass and eight work permit holders, half of whom work at dormitories for foreign workers.

The remaining 445 are foreign workers living in dorms.

Amongst the Singaporeans, six – of which four were asymptomatic – had been tested as part of proactive surveillance of persons who work at dorms, said the MOH.

The six – all men, aged between 49 to 72 – are linked to various dorm clusters at Woodlands Lodge I, 21 Tuas View Loop, North Coast Lodge, Cassia @ Penjuru, and Alaunia Lodge.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing for the remaining Singaporean, a 22-year-old female identified as Case 39808, who is among the two per cent of new cases with no established links.

Separately, a 40-year-old male permanent resident, case 39732, had been identified as a close contact of previously confirmed cases and had already been placed on quarantine earlier, said the ministry. He did not present any symptoms and had been swabbed during his quarantine to verify his status, it added.

Amongst the 10 foreign workers classified as community cases, three – cases 39581, 39582, and 39600 – had been detected due to proactive surveillance of persons working at dorms, even though they are all asymptomatic, said the MOH.

The trio are identified as a 22-year-old male Indian national and a 24-year-old Vietnamese man, both linked to Cassia @ Penjuru, and a 27-year-old female Indian national linked to ASPRI-Westlite Papan.

Two other cases – case 39450 and 39852 – were swabbed as part of efforts to screen workers in essential services, it added. They are a 34-year-old male Indian national and a 36-year-old Bangladeshi man, who had visited Mustafa Centre after developing symptoms. Both are classified as local unlinked cases.

Five other cases were close contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had already been quarantined at government quarantine facilities. They did not present any symptoms and had been swabbed during their quarantine to verify their status, said the ministry.

Of the five, three are Indian nationals, two men aged 31 and 36, and a woman, aged 23. The older man is linked to a cluster at 564 A-E Balestier Road.

The remaining two cases are both Bangladeshi men, aged 35 and 41.

Besides polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, or swab testing, serological tests were conducted to determine if cases were current or past infections, added the MOH.

The serological test results of four cases, 39729, 39732, 39859 and 39882, have come back positive, which indicate likely past infections. Results are pending for the rest of the community cases, the ministry said.

It added that the number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of six cases per day in the week before to an average of nine per day in the past week.

Similarly, the number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased, from an average of one case per day in the week before, to an average of four per day in the past week.

Clusters at two dorms, 1 construction site identified

The ministry also identified three additional clusters, two linked to dorms at 55 Genting Lane and 21 Tuas View Loop, as well as a construction site at Stirling Residences.

Separately, it announced the closure of the cluster at a dorm at 50A Tuas Link 4 as there have been no cases linked to it for the past two incubation periods or 28 days.

Dozens of clusters linked to foreign worker dorms have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of 2,737 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge with 2,036 cases, Jurong Penjuru Dormitory with 1,607 cases, Cassia @ Penjuru with 1,422 cases, and Tuas View Dormitory with 1,403 cases.

The five are among the 25 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas and account for almost 25 per cent of 37,488 total infected foreign workers living in dorms in Singapore.

About 10 per cent of some 400,000 such workers who live in dorms have been cleared of the infection, said Manpower Minister Josephine Teo on 1 June during a press conference.

Over 20,000 infected foreign workers have recovered, she added.

On Friday, the MOH also added three more public places to a list of locations – first published on 25 May – visited by infectious cases in the community for over 30 minutes. They include Harbourfront Centre and Waterway Point.

The list – which excludes residences, workplaces, healthcare facilities, and public transport – will be updated on a rolling 14-day basis or one incubation period.

(For more information on the various clusters, read here.)

Over 70% of cases recovered

With 754 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Friday, 28,040 cases – 70.3 per cent of the total tally – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 239 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while two are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 11,546 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 25 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 10 others who tested positive for the virus have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another three, including the 44-year-old male Indian national who died on Monday, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

“Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count,” said the MOH in previous press releases, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.

As of 8 June, the ministry has conducted 488,695 swab tests, of which 284,963 were done on unique individuals. This translates to around 85,700 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and about 50,000 unique individuals swabbed per 1 million total population.

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