COVID-19: S'pore confirms 528 new cases and 4 more clusters, shy of 15,000 mark

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday (28 April) confirmed 528 new COVID-19 cases and four more clusters in Singapore, bringing the total to 14,951 – the highest recorded in Southeast Asia.

This comes more than a week after it confirmed a single-day high of 1,426 new cases, and is the lowest reported figure since 447 cases on 15 April.

Of the new cases, 511, around 97 per cent, are foreign workers living in dormitories.

“Most of these cases have a mild illness and are being monitored in the community isolation facilities or general ward of our hospitals. None of them is in the intensive care unit,” it added.

Of the remaining cases, seven are foreign workers living outside dorms, while 10 are cases in the community, including seven Singaporeans and permanent residents.

One of the cases in the community is a 24-year-old male permanent resident who is employed at the Changi General Hospital (CGH) as a nurse. The man, identified as case 14693, had no recent travel history to affected countries or regions.

He reported developing symptoms on Monday and tested positive for the virus on the same day. The man is currently warded at the CGH and had not gone to work since developing the symptoms.

Overall, 17 per cent of the new cases have no established links.

The MOH said that the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 28 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 17 per day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of 18 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 10 per day in the past week, it added.

The ministry said it would continue to closely monitor these numbers as well as the cases detected through its surveillance programme.

Separately, the number of new cases amongst foreign workers residing outside dorms has decreased from an average of 25 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 20 per day in the past week.

The four additional clusters are linked to 33 Sungei Kadut Loop, 23H Sungei Kadut Street 1, 10 Tagore Drive, and 51H Tuas South Ave 1.

More than 50 clusters linked to foreign worker dormitories have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of 2,302 linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge linked to 901 cases and Tuas View Dormitory linked to 896 cases.

The three are among the 25 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas and account for 32 per cent of the total 12,694 infected cases living in dorms. Some 300,000 foreign workers live in dorms here in Singapore.

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

33 more discharged, 21 in ICU

The ministry said on Tuesday that 33 more patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 1,128 have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 1,689 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while 21 are in the intensive care unit, up from 20 on Monday.

A total of 12,120, who exhibit mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for the virus, are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

A total of 14 people have died from complications of the virus here, including two Singaporean men, aged 81 and 82, who succumbed to COVID-19 on Sunday.

Four patients who tested positive for the virus have died from causes unrelated to COVID-19.

The latest fatalities include a 40-year-old Malaysian man who died of a heart attack on 18 April and a 46-year-old Indian national whose fatal injuries were linked to a fall from height after being found at a staircase landing in Khoo Teck Puat Hospital last week. Both had tested positive for COVID-19 prior to their deaths.

As of 20 April, the ministry has conducted 121,774 swab tests, of which 82,644 were done on unique individuals.

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