COVID-19: Singapore confirms 465 new cases, 67-year-old man is 22nd fatality; total 27,356
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 465 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Saturday (16 May) noon, bringing the total to 27,356.
A 67-year-old Singaporean man has died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the death toll here from the coronavirus to 22.
Of them, 457 are foreign workers living in dorms, said the ministry. The remainder are five cases in the community, comprising four Singaporeans and one work pass holder, and three foreign workers residing outside dorms.
The four Singaporean cases are a 31-year-old man, who is a dormitory inspector, a 54-year-old man, who works at Cochrane Lodge II, a 53-year-old woman and a 25-year-old woman. The two women are “household contacts” of the 54-year-old man.
The lower number of cases is partly due to fewer tests being processed as one testing laboratory is reviewing its processes following an earlier apparatus calibration issue, and will need time to ramp up its testing capacity, said the MOH.
The MOH had previously said 35 cases that were verified to be negative for COVID-19 have been removed from the tally of confirmed cases.
There are three news clusters as of Saturday: 9 Sungei Kadut Way (nine cases), 7 Tech Park Crescent (seven cases) and 137 Tuas View Square (five cases).
About 99 per cent of the new cases are linked to known clusters, while the rest are unlinked and pending contact tracing.
With 1,094 patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, a total of 8,342 cases here have fully recovered from the infection, said the MOH.
Most of the 1,111 cases still in hospital are stable or improving, while 16 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, down from 18 a day earlier.
A total of 17,881 cases who have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for the virus are isolated and cared for at community facilities.
Dozens of clusters linked to foreign worker dorms have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of over 2,500 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge and Tuas View Dormitory.
The three are among the 25 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas. 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.
Apart from the 22 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, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.
It had also noted that 86 male foreign workers aged 25 to 59 died due to heart disease in Singapore in 2018.
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.
Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore
Related stories:
COVID-19: No tests for any disease can be completely accurate – MOH official
'No doubt' construction costs will rise with COVID-19 testing for workers ramped up: Lawrence Wong
10% of construction workforce to resume in 'controlled manner' by June: BCA
COVID-19 vaccine may arrive latest by end-2021 under ‘most hopeful’ forecast: NCID expert
COVID-19: Haj pilgrimage for Singaporeans deferred to 2021
Muslims in Singapore should refrain from Hari Raya visits this year: MUIS
