COVID-19: Singapore confirms 768 new cases and 5 more clusters, crosses 21,000 mark

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed on Friday (8 May) 768 new COVID-19 cases and five new clusters in Singapore, bringing the total to 21,707.

Of them, 750, or almost 98 per cent, are foreign workers living in dormitories, due to extensive testing in these premises.

Of the remaining cases, seven are foreign workers residing outside dorms while 11 are cases in the community, including 10 who are Singaporeans and permanent residents.

Among them are a 65-year-old Singaporean woman, who is employed as a cleaner at Changi Airport, as well as a 37-year-old Singaporean man who works as a manager at Universal Motors.

Other cases include a 34-year-old resident care associate at the Ren Ci @ Ang Mo Kio nursing home at 10 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8. The Filipina, who holds a Singapore work pass, was identified as case 21161.

She had no recent travel history to affected countries or regions and was confirmed to have the virus on Thursday. The woman was tested as part of the MOH’s ongoing surveillance tests at nursing homes, said the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC).

She is currently warded in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. Prior to her hospital admission, she had gone to work.

“While at work, she had complied with enhanced precautionary measures undertaken by the nursing home, including the donning of necessary personal protective equipment when caring for residents at the home,” said the AIC.

Separately, also confirmed as a patient by the authorities is an Acacia Home resident who was serving a quarantine order, the 16th case linked to the welfare home in Admiralty. The home was first declared a cluster linked to 15 cases – 13 residents and two employees – on 27 April.

As a precautionary measure, 167 people, including residents and staff, contractors as well as visitors who had visited the home between 29 March and 25 April, were swab tested. All its staff and residents were also placed on quarantine.

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

The MOH noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from an average of 12 cases per day in the week before, to an average of ten per day in the past week.

Similarly, the number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from an average of six cases per day in the week before, to an average of five per day in the past week.

The ministry also added that the number of new cases among foreign workers residing outside dorms has decreased from an average of 14 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 12 per day in the past week.

The five additional clusters are linked to 25 Kaki Bukit Industrial Terrace, 63 Senoko Drive, 53 Sungei Kadut Loop, 11 Tech Park Crescent and 57 Tuas View Walk 2.

The MOH also said that the three clusters linked to Dover Court International School at 301 Dover Road, the ICA Building at 10 Kallang Road and the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home at 1 Thomson Lane are considered inactive as they have not been linked to any cases for the past two incubation periods, or 28 days.

More than 50 clusters linked to foreign worker dorms have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of 2,535 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Tuas View Dormitory linked to 1,176 cases and Sungei Tengah Lodge linked to 1,079 cases.

The three are among the 25 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas and account for some 25 per cent of the total 19,232 infected cases across all dorms. Some 400,000 foreign workers live in dorms here in Singapore.

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

328 more patients discharged; 22 in ICU

The ministry on Friday confirmed that 328 more patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities In all, 2,040 have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 1,245 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while 22 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, up from 19 on Thursday.

A total of 18,402 – who have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for the virus – are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from the 20 COVID-related deaths, six patients who tested positive for the virus have died from unrelated causes, including a 44-year-old Bangladeshi man who died of a heart attack on Tuesday.

As of 4 May, the ministry has conducted 175,604 swab tests, of which 123,525 were done on unique individuals.

This translates to about 30,800 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and around 21,600 unique individuals swabbed per 1 million total population.

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