COVID-19: S'pore reports 793 more cases and new single-day high of 1,275 recoveries
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (15 May) confirmed a new daily high of 1,275 COVID-19 recoveries and 793 more COVID-19 cases in Singapore.
The city-state now has a total of 26,891 cases, of which 24,549 – or some 91 per cent – are foreign workers living in dormitories.
The ministry also confirmed five additional clusters, linked to 80 Kaki Bukit Industrial Terrace, 48 Toh Guan Road East, 55 Tuas South Avenue 1, 119 Tuas View Walk 1 and 33 Tuas View Walk 2.
Of the 793 new cases, 791 are foreign workers living in dorms, said the MOH, while the remaining two cases are a 53-year-old Singaporean man – classified as a local unlinked case – and one foreign worker residing outside the dorms.
Overall, only one per cent of the new cases have no established links.
The ministry added that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from an average of eight cases per day in the week before, to an average of four per day in the past week.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has similarly decreased from an average of three cases per day in the week before, to an average of one per day in the past week.
The MOH said that the number of new cases among foreign workers residing outside dorms has also decreased from an average of six cases per day in the week before, to an average of two per day in the past week.
Additionally, clusters linked to McDonald’s and the renovation sites at the National University Hospital at 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road are now considered inactive and closed as there have been no more cases linked to them for the past two incubation periods or 28 days, said the ministry.
Dozens of clusters linked to foreign worker dorms have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of 2,567 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge linked to 1,825 cases and Tuas View Dormitory linked to 1,268 cases.
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 on Tuesday.
As of the press conference, 1,735 such workers have recovered and have been discharged.
UPDATE: Breakdown of 793 new cases https://t.co/pWf8G6WwYu pic.twitter.com/IBN89iOaZc
— Yahoo Singapore (@YahooSG) May 15, 2020
(For more details on the clusters, read here.)
Over 7,200 patients discharged in total
With the new single-day high of 1,275 patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, a total of 7,248 cases here have fully recovered from the infection, said the ministry on Friday.
Most of the 1,124 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while 18 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, down from 20 on Thursday.
A total of 18,498 cases 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, nine 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 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 10 May, the minstry has conducted 224,262 swab tests, of which 216,102 were done on unique individuals.
This translates to around 39,300 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and about 37,900 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: No tests for any disease can be completely accurate – MOH official
'No doubt' construction costs will rise with COVID-19 testing for workers ramped up: Lawrence Wong
10% of construction workforce to resume in 'controlled manner' by June: BCA
COVID-19 vaccine may arrive latest by end-2021 under ‘most hopeful’ forecast: NCID expert
COVID-19: Haj pilgrimage for Singaporeans deferred to 2021
Muslims in Singapore should refrain from Hari Raya visits this year: MUIS
