COVID-19: Singapore confirms 675 new infections and single-day high of 958 recoveries

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed on Wednesday (13 May) 675 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, bringing the total to 25,346, as well as a single-day high of 958 recoveries.

The ministry also identified six more clusters, linked to 3 Kian Teck Crescent, 119 Neythal Road, 1 Sungei Kadut Street 4, 1020 Tai Seng Avenue, 17C Tuas Road, and 29 Tuas View Walk 2.

Of the 675 new cases, 671, or some 99 per cent, are foreign workers living in dorms.

The remaining four cases are two work pass holders and two Singaporeans, including a 48-year-old man who was deployed for operations duties at CDPL Tuas Dormitory. The dorm is linked to a cluster of 309 cases.

There are no cases among foreign workers residing outside dorms. Overall, only one per cent of new cases have no established links.

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

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from an average of three cases per day in the week before to an average of two per day in the past week.

Similarly, the number of new cases amongst foreign workers residing outside dorms 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 ministry added.

Dozens of clusters linked to foreign worker dorms have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of 2,562 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge linked to 1,439 cases and Tuas View Dormitory linked to 1,253.

The three are among the 25 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas and account for close to 23 per cent of 23,008 total infected cases across all dorms here. Some 400,000 foreign workers live in dorms here in Singapore.

Some 20,000 infected foreign workers are expected to be discharged by end-May, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong at a press conference on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday’s press conference, 1,735 such workers have recovered and have been discharged.

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

Over 4,800 patients discharged in total

With the additional single-day high of 958 patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, a total of 4,809 cases here have fully recovered from the infection, said the ministry on Wednesday.

Most of the 1,037 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while 19 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, down from 20 on Tuesday.

A total of 19,479 cases who have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for the virus are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 21 who have passed away due to COVID-19 complications, nine patients who tested positive for the virus have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack.

“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, who added that the practice is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.

In 2018, 86 male foreign workers aged 25 to 59 died due to heart disease in Singapore.

As of 10 May, the ministry has conducted 224,262 swab tests, of which 216,102 were done on unique individuals.

This translates to around 39,300 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and about 37,900 unique individuals swabbed per 1 million total population.

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