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Of 36 new COVID cases in Singapore, 24 in community

Residents queue up for their mandatory coronavirus disease swab tests in Singapore on 21 May, 2021. (PHOTO: Reuters)
Residents queue up for their mandatory coronavirus disease swab tests in Singapore on 21 May, 2021. (PHOTO: Reuters)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday (24 May) confirmed 36 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, taking the country's total case count to 61,860.

Of them, 24 are local transmissions in the community, of whom 22 are linked to previous cases. Among them, 12 had already been quarantined earlier. Twelve remaining cases are imported.

Monday marks the 29th consecutive day with local cases reported.

"Amongst the new cases today, 16 are asymptomatic, and were detected from our proactive screening and surveillance, while 20 were symptomatic," said the MOH.

Fifty cases have now been identified to be linked to the JEM/Westgate cluster, including cases previously linked to three clusters. The cluster, which was announced on Sunday, had then been linked to four cases.

Authorities identified a potential source of transmission for the cluster: a 53-year-old Singaporean woman who works as a cleaner at Park Avenue Rochester, a stay-home-notice dedicated facility.

The MOH also identified a new cluster of three cases linked to a 34-year-old Singaporean man who works as a technician at Singapore Refining Company. The latest case linked to the cluster is a 57-year-old Singaporean man who works as a cleaner at Mencast Marine. The fully-vaccinated man is a family member and household contact of the younger man.

Two unlinked cases on Tuesday are a 31-year-old male India national who works as an engineer at Hiap Seng Engineering, and a 31-year-old Singaporean man who works as a property agent with ERA Realty Network.

Separately, there are three cases linked to previously announced infections but are not part of any clusters: a 54-year-old Singaporean woman who is a homemaker, a 30-year-old Singaporean man employed by Hong Ye Group as a cleaning supervisor at Changi Business Park, and a 28-year-old Singaporean woman who works as an engineer at Takenaka Corporation. Both the 54-year-old woman and 30-year-old man had been quarantined earlier.

The ministry noted that the number of new cases in the community has increased from 149 in the week before to 185 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at 32 per week in the past two weeks.

Jem/Westgate cluster: 6 new cases + 40 previous cases, 50 in total

At 50 cases, it is now the second-largest out of 30 active clusters, after Changi Airport's 108-case cluster. Apart from six new cases on Monday, three clusters have been subsumed into the Jem/Westgate cluster.

They are seven cases linked to the Sms Infocomm cluster, including one who had tested preliminarily positive for the India variant, and four cases linked to the "Case 63304" cluster. The third cluster, the "Case 63357 cluster", was linked to 16 cases.

The six new cases – aged between 19 and 49, are working at, have visited the malls, or are family members and household contacts of cases in the cluster:

  • a 19-year-old Malaysian woman who is a Singapore Polytechnic student, and had visited Westgate on 8, 10, and 11 May (placed on quarantine on 22 May)

  • a 20-year-old Malaysian woman who is a Singapore Polytechnic student, and had visited Westgate on 10 May (placed on quarantine on 22 May)

  • a 44-year-old Singaporean woman who works as an administrative staff at ST Electronics (Jurong East)

  • a 49-year-old Malaysian man who works as a delivery personnel at AST Logistics, and frequently delivered goods at Westgate

  • a 24-year-old Singaporean woman who is currently unemployed

  • a 21-year-old Singaporean man who works as a waiter at Pizza Hut at Westgate

MOH said on Monday free COVID-19 testing will be extended to all individuals who had visited JEM and Westgate from 10 May to 22 May after additional cases were detected, after previously offering it for the period from 10 May to 14 May. The malls are also closed for two weeks from Sunday and are due to re-open on 6 June.

McDonald’s delivery riders cluster: 5 new cases, 10 in total

The cluster, identified on Saturday, was first linked to a 27-year-old Malaysian man who works as a delivery rider for IVIC Logistic and McDonald’s (Bedok Reservoir). He was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 20 May.

The five new cases on Monday, of whom four work at a Pizza Hut outlet at Punggol Plaza, are:

  • a 15-year-old Singaporean boy who is a Peicai Secondary School student and works part-time at Pizza Hut (Punggol Plaza) as a kitchen staff

  • a 16-year-old Singaporean boy who is a Greendale Secondary School student and works part-time at Pizza Hut (Punggol Plaza)

  • an 18-year-old Singaporean boy who works part-time at Pizza Hut (Punggol Plaza) as a kitchen staff (received first dose of COVID-19 vaccine)

  • a 31-year-old Malaysian man who works as a delivery rider for Pizza Hut (Punggol Plaza)

  • a 34-year-old Malaysian man who works as a delivery rider for Pizza Hut (Havelock II)

Learning Point cluster: 2 new cases, 30 in total

The cluster was first linked to a 50-year-old Singaporean woman who works as a tutor at Learning Point at Parkway Centre and was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 12 May.

The two new cases on Monday include a 38-year-old Singaporean woman who works as a teacher at Maha Bodhi School as well as a family member and household contact of a previously confirmed case. The fully-vaccinated woman was placed on quarantine on 13 May. The second case is an eight-year-old Singaporean girl who is a Yu Neng Primary School student and a classmate of a previously confirmed case. She was placed on quarantine on 16 May.

TTSH cluster: 1 new case, 48 in total

With 48 cases, the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) cluster is the third-largest out of 30 active clusters in Singapore.

Within the "Case 62541" cluster – named after the case number of a Filipino nurse who is deployed at Ward 9D – at least nine cases, including the nurse, had already been fully vaccinated. The nurse was confirmed to be infected with the Indian variant of the virus on 4 May, along with four others in the TTSH cluster: a fully vaccinated doctor who attended to patients in Ward 9D, and three patients of the ward aged between 57 and 79.

The new case on Monday is a 40-year-old Indonesian woman who is a foreign domestic worker. She had been identified as a visitor to the hospital's Ward 9D and was placed on quarantine on 30 April.

Changi Prison Complex cluster: 1 new case, 11 in total

The cluster at the prison was first linked to a 39-year-old male China national who is a chef at its complex. The fully-vaccinated man was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 13 May.

The latest addition, a 51-year-old Singaporean man who is a prison inmate there, brings the total number of inmates in the cluster to eight. The man, who had received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, had tested negative for COVID-19 in four prior tests.

Marina Bay Sands casino cluster: 1 new case, 6 in total

The cluster at the casino was first linked to a 36-year-old Malaysian man who works as a dealer there and was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 16 May. One of the cases in the cluster, one of two infections who are not working at the casino, had tested preliminarily positive for the India variant, or B.1.617.

The latest case to be added to the cluster is the fourth employee at the casino: a 32-year-old Singaporean man who works as a dealer there and had been quarantined earlier.

'Case 63236' cluster: 1 new case, 7 in total

The cluster is named after the case number of a 53-year-old Singaporean man who works as a personal chauffeur and confirmed to have COVID-19 on 14 May. The man also tested preliminarily positive for the India variant, or B.1.617.

The latest addition to the cluster is a family member and household contact of two cases: a two-year-old boy from Hong Kong who is a student at Heart Field Kindergarten and was placed on quarantine on 14 May.

'Case 63376' cluster: 1 new case, 4 in total

It is named after the case number of a 46-year-old Singaporean woman who is a DBS investment banker and was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 17 May. Two cases in the cluster are Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) students, Singapore's first case of school-based transmission, according to authorities.

The fourth case to be added to the cluster is an unemployed 47-year-old Singaporean man, who is a family member and household contact of the woman. The man, who had received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, was placed on quarantine on 17 May.

12 imported cases, including five S'pore residents

Among the 12 imported cases, three are Singaporeans, including a 10-year-old boy, and two are permanent residents who returned from India and the US.

Another is a Dependant’s Pass holder who arrived from Russia, while two are work permit holders who arrived from Indonesia, both of whom are foreign domestic workers.

Three others are short-term visit pass holders, including one who arrived from the Philippines to visit her family member who is a PR and another who arrived from Malaysia for matters related to her PR status.

The third short-term visit pass holder was already receiving medical care in Singapore and had arrived from Indonesia for further treatment.

The remaining case is a special pass holder who is a sea crew. He arrived from Vietnam on a vessel and was tested onboard without disembarking.

All 12 imported cases were placed on the stay-home notice or isolated upon their arrival here.

99% of total cases have recovered, 3 in ICU

With 22 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Monday, 61,316 cases – or 99.1 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 244 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while three of them are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 268 patients – with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive – are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from the 32 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

Among the 247 cases reported from 18 to 24 May, 46 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 140 have tested negative, and 61 serology test results are pending.

Read more about Singapore's Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) restrictions here.

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