COVID-19: Singapore reports 451 new cases, 2 new clusters; total at 28,794
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday (19 May) confirmed 451 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, bringing the total to 28,794.
Of them, 450 are foreign workers living in dormitories while the remaining case is a Singaporean, said the ministry.
The 30-year-old Singaporean man (case 28,708) developed symptoms on 11 May and was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 18 May. He is a household contact of case 28,271.
The number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of six cases per day in the week before, to an average of three per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of two cases per day in the week before, to an average of one per day in the past week.
The number of new cases among foreign workers living outside dormitories has decreased, from an average of four cases per day in the week before, to an average of one per day in the past week.
Of the new cases, 99 per cent are linked to clusters, while the rest are unlinked and pending contact tracing.
There were also two more clusters: 2 Sungei Kadut Street 4 (15 cases) and 13 Kaki Bukit Road 4 (four cases).
Dozens of clusters linked to foreign worker dorms 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. 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 last Tuesday.
Over 10,300 discharged in total
With 530 more cases of COVID-19 infection discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, a total of 10,365 cases here have fully recovered from the infection, said the ministry on Tuesday.
Most of the 1,004 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while 10 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, down from 16 a day earlier.
A total of 17,403 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 22 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, nine others 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 18 May, the ministry has conducted 294,414 swab tests, of which 191,260 were done on unique individuals.
This translates to around 51,600 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and about 33,500 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: Infected SMRT staff last worked at Bishan MRT on 15 May, premises disinfected
Singapore doctors on COVID-19 frontlines feel safe, confident: new study
No known cases of COVID-19 re-infection in Singapore: NCID official
COVID-19: Robertson Quay restaurants told to stop selling takeaway booze
