SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 611 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Friday (May 29), taking the country’s total number of infections to 33,860.
Three cases were Singaporeans or permanent residents, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its daily update.
The country had on Thursday announced no new Singaporean or permanent resident COVID-19 cases for the first time since Feb 23.
A record 1,337 more COVID-19 patients were also discharged. In all, 19,631 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
NINE COMMUNITY CASES
Of the nine cases in the community, two are Singaporeans, including a 44-year-old woman linked to the cluster at 1020 Tai Seng Avenue, which now has a total of 159 confirmed cases.
She is also a household contact of Case 28077, a 50-year-old Singaporean man who had gone to work at the dormitory and had tested positive for COVID-19 on May 17.
The other Singaporean case on Friday was a 25-year-old woman who was employed as a physiotherapist at Changi General Hospital (CGH) and is currently unlinked.
The woman, known as Case 33864, has no recent travel history to affected countries or regions and was confirmed to have the coronavirus on Thursday.
She is currently warded at CGH and had not gone to work since the onset of symptoms.
Another community case, 53-year-old permanent resident who was asymptomatic, is linked to the SCM Tuas Lodge cluster, which has 396 confirmed cases.
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NUMBER OF UNLINKED CASES IN THE COMMUNITY REMAINS STABLE
The remaining community cases comprise two work pass holders and four work permit holders. All six cases were asymptomatic.
MOH said among the six work pass and work permit holders, five were picked up as a result of its proactive screening and surveillance.
Two cases were tested before they were due to start work on plumbing and electrical projects at schools, as a precautionary measure to prepare for the safe re-opening of schools, the ministry added.
Three were tested as part of the ministry’s screening of migrant workers residing at shophouses located at Balestier Road, due to their proximity to another cluster in the same area.
“The remaining case is a contact of earlier cases, and had already been placed on quarantine earlier,” the ministry added.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of six cases per day in the week before to an average of five per day in the past week.
“The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two per day in the past two weeks,” MOH said.
“We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.”
A total of 602 of Friday’s new cases were work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.
“We continue to pick up many cases among work permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises, as part of our process to verify and test the status of all workers,” the health ministry said.
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Two new clusters were also identified. They are both dormitories and are located at 35 Kaki Bukit Place and 40 Kaki Bukit Industrial Terrace.
MOH said 99 per cent of the new cases on Friday are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.
As there have been no more cases linked to Keppel Shipyard (51 Pioneer Sector 1) and 2 Tuas Avenue 1 for 28 days, the clusters have now been closed. Further details can be found in the ministry’s daily situation report.
There are currently 461 patients still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving while eight are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
A further 13,745 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, 23 have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection.
MOH said some of the confirmed community cases had visited Taman Jurong Shopping Centre during their infectious period.
Among the other locations in MOH’s list of public places visited by community cases while infectious include FairPrice supermarkets at Bukit Panjang Plaza, Hillion Mall and Jurong Point.
People who visited these places during timings specified in the list are advised to monitor their health closely for 14 days from their date of visit.
In an update on pre-school staff members who tested positive for COVID-19, MOH said 11 of the 13 cases were likely to be past infections, based on epidemiological investigations, including their positive serological test results.
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“One more serological test has come back positive today. We have assessed that the individual was unlikely to be infectious by the time of the recent screening. The final serological test (Case 33092) has come back negative, which is indicative of a recent infection,” said MOH.
The ministry added that the case is a non-teaching staff member and had been asymptomatic. Her close contacts have been placed under quarantine.
In all, more than 39,000 pre-school staff members have been tested so far, and only one case is likely to be a current infection.
SINGAPORE TO EXIT CIRCUIT BREAKER NEXT WEEK
“Circuit breaker” restrictions will be gradually eased in three phases starting with Phase 1 on Jun 2.
Phase 2 could start before the end of next month, provided “infection rates remain low and stable” in the first two weeks of June, said Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong on Thursday.
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