COVID-19: Singapore confirms 618 new cases, 7 new clusters including at Northpoint mall, total 12,693
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 618 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Saturday (25 April), bringing the total to 12,693 – the highest recorded in Southeast Asia.
This comes five days after it confirmed a single-day high of 1,426 new cases.
Of the new cases, 597 are foreign workers living in dormitories, said the MOH. Of the remainder, 12 are foreign workers living outside dorms, seven are Singaporeans and two are on work/long-term visit passes.
There were seven new clusters including at Northpoint City mall in Yishun with seven cases, the ASPRI-Westlite Papan dorm (5 Jalan Papan) with 11 cases, Kian Teck Hostel (30 Kian Teck Avenue) with 13 cases, Sembcorp Marine Tuas Lodge dorm (80 Tuas South Boulevard) with 14 cases, 21 Defu South Street 1 with 32 cases, a construction site at 8 Martin Place with four cases, and a construction site at 107 West Coast Vale with 12 cases.
Of the new cases, 19 per cent of them are unlinked pending contact tracing.
From 18 April to Friday, MOH has uncovered links for 1,226 previously unlinked cases.
An additional 46 cases have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, bringing the total to 1,002.
There are currently 1,214 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, 24 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
A total 10,465 cases who have mild symptoms and still test positive for COVID-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.
Around 50 clusters linked to foreign worker dormitories have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster 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 and account for some 40 per cent of the total infected cases living in dorms across Singapore.
Some 300,000 foreign workers live in dorms here in Singapore.
To date, 12 cases here have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection, including an 84-year-old Singaporean woman who succumbed to the virus on Tuesday night.
Three patients, who tested positive for the virus, have died from causes unrelated to COVID-19. The latest such fatality was a 40-year-old Malaysian man who died of a heart attack on Saturday. He had tested positive for the virus the day before.
Separately, a 46-year-old Indian migrant worker, identified by the ministry as case 8190, died after being found at a staircase landing in Khoo Teck Puat Hospital on Thursday. He had tested positive for COVID-19 prior to his death.
“The cause of death for case 8190 was multiple injuries consistent with those resulting from a fall from height, and was not due to complications from COVID-19 infection,” the ministry said on Friday.
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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