COVID-19: Singapore confirms 34 new cases, 3 in the community
SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 34 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Saturday (5 September) afternoon, bringing the country’s total to 56,982.
All the new cases are asymptomatic and were detected from MOH’s proactive screening and surveillance.
There are three new cases in the community, of whom one is a Singaporean and two are work pass holders. They are currently unlinked. Of these, two (Cases 57079 and 57098) were detected as a result of the rostered routine testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside the dormitories.
The remaining case (Case 57082) had travelled to Malaysia but was denied entry at the airport due to administrative reasons. He tested negative while across the Causeway, and was placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) at a dedicated facility upon arrival in Singapore the next day. He subsequently tested positive while serving his SHN.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of two cases per day in the week before, to an average of three per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of one case per day in the past two weeks.
There are also two imported cases. They are Singaporeans who returned from Australia on 25 August and India on 24 August, respectively. Both were placed on SHN upon arrival in Singapore.
New clusters in worker dorms
Three new clusters have been detected at migrant worker dormitories that were previously declared cleared of the virus: Cochrane Lodge I, Mandai Lodge I and Tuas South Dormitory. They were linked to nine, 17 and 11 earlier confirmed cases respectively.
Amongst the 29 cases residing in dormitories, 14 were identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status.
The remaining 15 cases were detected through surveillance testing.Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, MOH has conducted serological tests to determine if some of these cases are current or past infections. The serological test results for 8 cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infections.
Since 22 August, several new clusters have been found in dormitories that were previously cleared of the disease.
Over 98 per cent of total discharged
With 93 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Saturday, 56,267 cases – or 98.7 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.
Most of the 50 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
A total of 638 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.
Apart from 27 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.
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