SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 548 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Sunday (May 24), taking its total number of coronavirus infections to 31,616.
Of the new cases, 544 cases were foreign workers residing in dormitories, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said. It added that many cases are still being picked up in dormitories due to extensive testing.
Four cases were from the community, comprising three Singaporeans and one work permit holder.
One of the Singaporean cases is a 33-year-old woman who went to work at Iman Childcare at Tampines. This makes her the eighth pre-school staff member to be diagnosed with COVID-19 due to proactive testing.
Another Singaporean is a 55-year-old man who went to work at SSKBJV dormitory.
The third Singaporean is a 35-year-old woman linked to the cluster at CDPL Tuas Dormitory. She is a household contact of Case 30,385, a 37-year-old man who is linked to Case 24,831, the man who was deployed for operation duties at CDPL Tuas dormitory.
The one work permit holder case is a 30-year-old Bangladeshi man, who is currently unlinked.
The number of new cases in the community has increased from an average of five per day in the week before to an average of six per day in the past week.
“This is partly due to our active surveillance and screening of nursing home residents and pre-school staff, which have picked up more cases in the past week,” it said.
Of the new cases, 99 per cent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of 2 per day in the past two weeks.
No new clusters were reported on Sunday.
MOH has closed the cluster at Strand Hotel as there have been no more cases for two incubation periods.
On Sunday, MOH also said that 994 more patients have been discharged. In all, 14,876 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
At the moment, 690 COVID-19 patients are still in the hospital. Most are stable and improving, with eight in critical condition in the intensive care unit, and 16,027 isolated and cared for at community facilities.
Twenty-three have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.
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MORE PRE-SCHOOL STAFF MEMBERS TEST POSITIVE
On Saturday, two pre-school staff members were among the 11 community cases reported.
One of them, a 24-year-old Filipino woman, works at PCF Sparkletots @ Gambas and the other is a 54-year-old Singaporean woman who works at Shaws Preschool @ Lorong Chuan.
As of Sunday 12pm, seven pre-school staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, less than one per cent of the 15,300 who have been swabbed so far.
The mass testing exercise, ahead of pre-schools reopening on Jun 2, is now at the halfway mark, said the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) on Saturday.
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