SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 752 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Thursday (May 14), taking the country’s total to 26,098.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Thursday that 1,164 more patients have been discharged, a new daily high and the first time the number of discharged patients has crossed the 1,000 mark.
In all, 5,973 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
A total of 750 of the new cases are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories, said MOH in its daily update.
MOH said it continues to pick up many more cases among work permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises.
There were no new imported cases or cases among work permit holders residing outside dormitories.
READ: Like a ‘giant N95 mask’: Safer, faster COVID-19 testing of migrant workers with new mobile swab station
MOH reported on Thursday two new cases in the community. The first case is a 76-year-old Singaporean man who is part of a cluster at 63 Senoko Drive.
The other case is a 43-year-old permanent resident, who is part of a cluster at TTJ Design & Engineering and is a contact of Cases 10923, 12471, 15097 and 21384.
A new cluster was also identified at 2 Perumal Road.
There are currently 1,072 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving while 20 are in a critical condition in the intensive care unit.
A total of 19,032 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are people who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19.
To date, 21 have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection. No deaths were reported on Thursday.
READ: COVID-19: Singapore records more discharged cases than new patients in a day
PUBLIC SHOULD NOT BE OVERLY ALARMED BY HIGH NUMBER OF COVID-19 CASES: MANPOWER MINISTER
Earlier in the day, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo urged the public not to be “overly alarmed” even as the number of COVID-19 cases in Singapore remained elevated.
Mrs Teo explained that the large number of reported cases among migrant workers reflected the current approach of “aggressive testing”.
“Few countries have tested their migrant populations extensively; far fewer have undertaken to test all their migrant workers, as Singapore has,” she said.
BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
