Of 9 new COVID cases in Singapore, 4 local including 1 dorm resident

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday (8 June) confirmed nine new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, bringing the country's total case count to 62,219.

Of them, four are local cases – three are in the community and one resides in a dormitory. One of the community cases is linked to previous cases and had already been placed on quarantine.

Tuesday marks the 44th consecutive day with local cases reported.

The remaining five cases are imported, including two permanent residents who returned from India as well as two work permit holders who arrived from Indonesia and the Philippines, of whom one is a foreign domestic worker. The last imported case is a short-term visit pass holder who was already receiving medical care here and had arrived from Indonesia for further treatment.

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

The ministry also announced the 34th COVID-19 related fatality in Singapore – an 86-year-old Singapore woman who is the third death linked to the now inactive Tan Tock Seng Hospital cluster of 48 cases. The cluster was announced to be closed on 6 June.

The two unlinked cases in the community are:

• a 54-year-old PR who works as a vessel manager at NYK Shipmanagement (fully vaccinated)

• a 35-year-old Malaysian woman who works as a retail assistant at Ion Orchard's and AMK Hub's Four Leaves outlets

The third new community case has been added to the MINDSville@Napiri cluster, which now has 33 infections linked to it. The cluster was first linked to a 37-year-old Singaporean woman who is a resident at the home and was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 31 May.

The latest addition is a male resident at the home who has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. All 255 staff and residents of MINDSville@Napiri have been tested for COVID-19 since the 37-year-old resident was confirmed.

Separately, the sole dorm case, currently unlinked, is a 31-year-old Bangladeshi man who is employed by Isogo Marine Engineering as a plumber and pipe fitter, and works at Keppel Shipyard Tuas Yard. The fully-vaccinated resides at Avery Lodge at 2D Jalan Papan.

The MOH noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 125 in the week before to 93 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from 24 in the week before to 10 in the past week.

It also announced the closure of the MT ALLI cluster – linked to seven cases – as there have been no more cases linked to it for the past two incubation periods, or 28 days. Singapore now has 46 active COVID-19 clusters.

The two-day testing operation for all residents of Block 325A Sumang Walk in Punggol begun on Tuesday, following the detection of eight cases in three different households in the block.

The latest case is a 13-year-old student at Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School who was confirmed as a case on Sunday.

Visitors who were at the block from 10 May to 5 June have also been encouraged by the MOH to come forward for testing, which will be conducted at the pavilion at Block 324 Sumang Walk from 9am to 4pm.

99% of total cases have recovered, 2 in ICU

With 42 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Tuesday, 61,702 cases – or 99.2 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 187 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while two of them are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 296 patients – with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive – are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from the 34 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 159 confirmed cases reported from 1 to 7 June, 76 cases have tested positive for their serology tests, 69 have tested negative, and 14 serology test results are pending.

In a national televised address last Monday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the government should be able to ease COVID-19 safe management restrictions after 13 June if the pandemic situation continues to improve and the number of community cases falls further.

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