COVID-19: Singapore confirms 65 new cases with 3 new clusters, including Ce La Vi and SCC
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Friday (3 April) 65 more coronavirus cases here, bringing the country’s total to 1,114.
There are three new clusters formed: at Marina Bay Sands’ Ce La Vi, at Singapore Cricket Club, and at a construction site at Project Glory on Market Street.
Of the new cases, nine are imported while 56 are local transmissions. The nine imported cases had travel history to Europe, North America, Middle East and ASEAN countries.
There are 16 locally-transmitted cases which have no established links, while 40 are linked to previous cases or clusters, including:
One case linked to three previous cases, forming a new cluster at Ce La Vi (1 Bay Front Avenue).
One case linked to five previous cases, forming a new cluster at Singapore Cricket Club.
One case linked to three previous cases, forming a new cluster at a construction site at Project Glory (50 Market Street).
11 additional cases are linked to the cluster at S11 Dormitory @ Punggol, which has a total of 24 confirmed cases.
Eight additional cases are linked to the cluster at Westlite Toh Guan dormitory, which has a total of 18 confirmed cases.
Three additional cases are linked to the cluster at Mustafa Centre, which has a total of 14 cases now.
One additional case is linked to the cluster at a construction site at Maxwell MRT station, which has a total of six cases.
One additional case is linked to the cluster at Keppel Shipyard, which has a total of four cases.
One additional case is linked to the cluster at Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home, which has a total of 13 cases.
One additional case is linked to the cluster at Dover Court International School, which has a total of nine confirmed cases.
One additional case is linked to the cluster at Wilby Residences, which has a total of nine confirmed cases.
One additional case is linked to the cluster at Hero’s, which has a total of nine confirmed cases.
Contact tracing is underway for 127 locally transmitted cases to establish any links to previous cases or travel history to affected countries or regions.
25 patients in critical condition
To date, 282 cases have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.
Most of the remaining 473 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while 25 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, up from 24.
There are 401 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for the virus. These cases are isolated and cared for at Concord International Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and the Community Isolation Facility at D’Resort NTUC.
Five have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection, with the latest fatality – an 86-year-old Singaporean woman – succumbing to it early Friday morning.
As of Friday noon, MOH has identified 15,442 close contacts who have been quarantined. Of these, 5,007 are currently quarantined, and 10,435 have completed their quarantine.
Measures to combat spread of coronavirus in S’pore
Earlier on Friday, Singapore announced an enhanced set of social distancing measures that includes the closure of schools and most workplaces. Only essential services like food establishments, markets and supermarkets, clinics, hospitals, utilities, transport, and key banking services will remain open.
Meanwhile, Singapore will no longer discourage the public from wearing face masks, as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called these new measures as “circuit breakers” to pre-empt escalating COVID-19 infection.
Last Wednesday in Parliament, Health Minister and COVID-19 multi-ministry taskforce co-chair Gan Kim Yong said cases will continue to rise, as some of around 200,000 overseas Singaporeans return home.
All Singapore residents and long-term pass holders returning from overseas apart from Hubei province must serve the 14-day stay-home notice, while those returning from Hubei must serve a 14-day quarantine. All short-term visitors are barred from entering or transiting via Singapore.
Anyone who flouts the 14-day stay-home notice by leaving the place of accommodation or residence they are serving the notice in will be subjected to steep penalties.
Patients who flout their five-day medical leave can face steep penalties such as a fine of up to $10,000, according to the MOH’s latest updates to the Infectious Diseases Act.
The same penalties also apply to those who intentionally sit on a seat or stand in a queue less than one metre away from another person in public venues, from now till end-April.
Those on five-day sick leave or serving a stay-home notice must also wear a mask if they have to leave their place of accommodation to seek emergency medical treatment.
The Singapore government would also allocate over $48 billion to combat the “unprecedented” COVID-19 crisis, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat in his Ministerial Statement in Parliament last Thursday.
The sum is on top of the $6.4 billion Unity Budget announced by Heng in February that was meant to alleviate the economic impact of the pandemic.
More than 1 million COVID-19 cases globally
To date, there are over 1,018,000 COVID-19 cases globally. Over 53,000 have died from the virus, with the death tolls in Spain and Italy accounting for almost half of the figure.
At over 245,000 cases, the US now holds the record of having the largest number of patients globally, followed by Italy and Spain at over 110,000 cases each, Germany at over 84,000, and China at over 81,000.
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