COVID-19: Singapore sees 741 new cases, total now at 20,939
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 741 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of noon on Thursday (7 May), bringing the total to 20,939.
The vast majority of the new cases are migrant workers living in dormitories, said the ministry, noting that five are Singaporeans and permanent residents. Six new clusters have also been confirmed.
The breakdown is as follows:
Imported cases: 0
Cases in the community: 7 (5 Singaporeans/permanent residents, 2 work pass holders)
Work permit holders (residing outside dormitories): 9
Work permit holders (residing in dormitories): 725
Of the new cases, 87 per cent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing, said MOH.
The six new clusters are located at: 5 Sixth Lok Yang Road, 98 Kaki Bukit Industrial Terrace, 4 Sungei Kadut Avenue, 5 Tech Park Crescent and 52 Tuas View Square.
More than 50 clusters linked to migrant worker dormitories have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Tuas View Dormitory and Sungei Tengah Lodge, 3 Tuas Drive 1 and
The three are among the 25 dormitories that have been gazetted as isolation areas. Some 400,000 migrant workers live in dorms in Singapore.
Community cases going down
According to MOH, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 14 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 10 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of seven cases per day in the week before, to an average of four per day in the past week.
The number of new cases amongst migrant workers residing outside dormitories has also decreased, from an average of 15 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 13 per day in the past week.
However, extensive testing continues to pick up many more cases amongst work permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories.
Cases in the public healthcare sector
Case 20737 is a 33-year-old female Singapore citizen with no recent travel history to affected countries or regions. She was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 6 May, and is currently warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
Prior to hospital admission, she had gone to work for a few hours as a healthcare assistant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Meanwhile, case 20844 is a 43-year-old male Singapore citizen with recent travel history to affected countries or regions. He was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 7 May, and is currently warded at NCID.
Prior to hospital admission, he had gone to work as a radiographer at the community care facility at Singapore Expo. He is one of at least four healthcare workers linked to the care facility who have tested positive for the virus, including a 20-year-old nurse, a 52-year-old healthcare volunteer, and a 34-year-old Health Promotion Board nurse.
Latest numbers
78 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged. In all, 1,712 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
There are currently 1,376 patients who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 19 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
17,831 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. They have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19.
20 have died from complications due to coronavirus infection.
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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