Singapore
81% of the new cases are linked to known clusters.
Foreign workers wearing face masks are seen in a workers’ dormitory in Singapore, Apr 9, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
SINGAPORE: Singapore reported a record 728 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday (Apr 16), bringing the total number of infections in the country to 4,427.
Of the new cases, 81 per cent are linked to previously identified clusters while the rest are pending contact tracing, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the media release.
A total of 654 new cases are from foreign worker dormitories, while 26 new cases are work permit holders residing outside dormitories.
As for local cases in the community, 48 cases were reported on Thursday, and there were no new imported cases.
MOH added that 31 more patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 683 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged.
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On Thursday, a ninth foreign worker dormitory, Mandai Lodge 1, was declared an isolation area after a new cluster of cases was identified there.
According to MOH’s notice in the Government Gazette, the dormitory at 460 Mandai Road was declared an isolation area to prevent “the spread or possible outbreak” of COVID-19.
ACTION TAKEN AGAINST THOSE WHO VIOLATE COVID-19 MEASURES
A man who breached his stay-home notice to go out to run errands and eat bak kut teh pleaded guilty on Thursday to exposing others to the risk of infection – the first case of its kind.
The 34-year-old man did not go home immediately when he landed in Singapore from Myanmar and when he did go home, he did not remain there.
Instead, he appeared in public several times over a four-hour period in behaviour labelled “blatantly irresponsible” by the prosecutors.
From Monday to Wednesday, 19 instances of enforcement action were also taken against members of the public for violating of safe distancing requirements at markets and cooked food sections of hawker centres, according to the National Environment Agency (NEA).
In one case on Wednesday, a man was seen eating at the cooked food section of a hawker centre at Block 89 Circuit Road when he was approached by NEA enforcement officers.
The man refused to provide his particulars to the NEA officers, who then activated the police. The man attempted to leave before the police arrived, and when an NEA officer tried to stop him, the man hit the officer in the face.
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