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S'porean woman, 81, among 569 new COVID-19 cases; 2 more dorm clusters identified

Office workers seen during lunch hour in Singapore’s central business district on 2 June 2020. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)
Office workers seen during lunch hour in Singapore’s central business district on 2 June 2020. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wednesday (3 June) confirmed 569 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore – including an 81-year-old Singaporean woman – bringing the total to 36,405.

The ministry also identified two additional clusters linked to foreign worker dormitories at 12 Kwong Min Road and 8 Tuas South Lane.

Of the 569 new cases, 562 are foreign workers living in dorms, said the ministry.

The remaining seven – all classified as cases in the community – are the 81-year-old woman, the only Singaporean among the new infections, as well as three work pass holders and three work permit holders residing outside dorms.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing for the elderly Singaporean, who is among the one per cent – of the new cases on Wednesday – with no established links.

All six foreign workers residing outside dorms had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had already been placed on quarantine earlier, the ministry added.

All were asymptomatic on testing – five are Indian male nationals aged 23 to 40 while the sixth is a 31-year-old Chinese female national.

The MOH noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from an average of six cases per day in the week before to an average of four per day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two per day in the past two weeks, it added.

The ministry also confirmed that of 14 preschool staff who had tested positive using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, or swab test, 13 were likely to been infected in the past.

“One more serological test has come back positive today, indicating a likely past infection,” it said of the latest test results of one staff member. “In all, more than 39,000 preschool staff have been tested, and only one case was likely to be a current infection at the point of screening, as announced on 29 May.”

Separately, the ministry said that the cluster at a dorm at 1 North Coast Drive is now considered closed as it has not been linked to any cases 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 2,717 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge with 2,002 cases, Jurong Penjuru Dormitory with 1,418 cases, and Tuas View Dormitory with 1,387 cases.

The four are among the 25 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas and account for some 22 per cent of 34,129 total infected foreign workers living in dorms.

Some 400,000 such workers live in dorms here in Singapore.

National Development Minister and co-chair of the COVID-19 multi-ministry taskforce Lawrence Wong had at a 12 May press conference said that some 20,000 infected foreign workers are expected to be discharged by end-May.

(For more details on the clusters, read here.)

Over 23,500 cases discharged

With 407 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, a total of 23,582 – over 60 per cent of total cases here – here have fully recovered from the infection, said the MOH on Wednesday.

Most of the 334 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while five are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, down from six on Tuesday.

A total of 12,465 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 24 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, nine others who tested positive for the virus have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and two 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 1 June, the ministry has conducted 408,495 swab tests, of which 264,393 were done on unique individuals. This translates to around 71,700 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and about 46,400 unique individuals swabbed per 1 million total population.

Public places visited by community cases

The MOH has been publishing a list of locations visited by cases in the community for over 30 minutes since last Monday.

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

As a precautionary measure, the MOH advised those who had been at these locations during the specified timings to monitor their health closely for 14 days from their date of visit.

They have also been urged by the ministry to visit the doctor if they develop symptoms such as cough, sore throat, as well as fever and loss of taste or smell, and inform the doctor of their exposure history.

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