COVID-19: Singapore reports 486 new cases; 504 more recovered, discharged

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed on Monday (11 May) 486 new coronavirus cases in Singapore, bringing the total to 23,787, and 504 more recoveries.

The ministry also reported two deaths, one from COVID-19 complications – Singapore’s 21st such fatality – and the other from a heart attack. The latter was confirmed to be infected with the novel coronavirus after death.

The city-state’s 21st fatality from COVID-19 complications is a 68-year-old Singaporean man who died on Monday. The man – identified as case 1305 – was confirmed to be infected on 5 April, and had a history of hypertension and hyperlipidaemia.

He was first identified as an unlinked case but was later linked to a family member identified as patient 1660, a 65-year-old Singaporean woman who tested positive for the virus on 8 April.

“The National University Hospital has reached out to his family and is extending assistance to them,” said the ministry.

A 53-year-old Indian national, who died of a heart attack due to coronary thrombosis on Saturday, was confirmed to be infected a day after his death. The man, identified as case 23550, had been sent to the emergency department at the Sengkang General Hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Of the 486 new cases, 481, or close to 99 per cent, are foreign workers living in dormitories.

Of the five remaining cases, three are foreign workers residing outside dorms while one is a 52-year-old Singaporean male staff member at 53 Sungei Kadut Loop and the fifth patient is a 41-year-old female permanent resident.

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

The lower number of cases on Monday is due in part to fewer tests being processed at a testing laboratory as it is recalibrating its apparatus for one of the test kits, said the ministry a day after it announced that 35 cases were verified to be negative upon re-testing.

The MOH also noted that the number of new cases in the community as well as those among foreign workers residing outside dorms have both decreased, from an average of nine cases per day in the week before to an average of eight per day in the past week.

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

Three additional clusters were also identified by the MOH: Tuas South Apartments at 69R Tuas South Avenue 1, 47 Senoko Drive and 566 Woodlands Road.

More than 50 clusters linked to foreign worker dorms have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of 2,543 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Tuas View Dormitory linked to 1,223 cases and Sungei Tengah Lodge linked to 1,159 cases.

The three are among the 25 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas and account for 23 per cent of 21,410 total infected cases across all dorms. Some 400,000 foreign workers live in dorms here in Singapore.

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

Over 3,200 patients discharged in total

With the additional 504 patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, a total of 3,225 here have fully recovered from the infection, said the ministry on Monday.

Most of the 1,093 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while 24 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, up from 22 on Sunday.

A total of 19,448 patients 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 21 who have passed away due to COVID-19 complications, seven patients 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, who added that the practice is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.

The ministry noted that 86 male foreign workers aged 25 to 59 died due to heart disease in Singapore In 2018.

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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