408 new COVID-19 cases in S'pore, no community links; 24th fatality reported

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed on Monday (1 June) 408 new coronavirus cases in Singapore, all of whom are foreign workers living in dormitories and linked to known clusters, as well as the city-state’s 24th COVID-19 related fatality.

This brings the total of cases here to 35,292. The latest fatality from COVID-19 complications in Singapore – the youngest to date – was a 51-year-old male Chinese national who died on Sunday.

The ministry also confirmed three additional clusters, all linked to dorms: HSJV Dormitory at 33A Tanah Merah Coast Road), one at 10 Tuas South Street 12 and another at 109 Tuas View Walk 1.

It added that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from an average of seven cases per day in the week before, to an average of three per day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of two per day in the past two weeks, the MOH said.

Dozens of clusters linked to foreign worker dorms have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of 2,711 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge with 1,989 cases, Tuas View Dormitory with 1,383 cases and Jurong Penjuru Dormitory with 1,349 cases.

The four are among the 25 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas and account for some 22 per cent of the total 33,027 infected foreign workers living in dorms.

Some 400,000 such workers live in dorms here in Singapore.

National Development Minister and co-chair of the COVID-19 multi-ministry taskforce Lawrence Wong had at a 12 May press conference said that some 20,000 infected foreign workers are expected to be discharged by end-May.

(For more information on the clusters, click here.)

Since last Monday, the MOH has been publishing a list of locations visited by cases in the community for over 30 minutes.

This list – which excludes residences, workplaces, healthcare facilities, and public transport – will be updated on a rolling 14-day basis or one incubation period, the ministry said.

As a precautionary measure, the MOH advised those who had been at these locations during the specified timings to monitor their health closely for 14 days from their date of visit.

They have also been urged by the ministry to visit the doctor if they develop symptoms such as cough, sore throat, as well as fever and loss of taste or smell, and inform the doctor of their exposure history.

Over 22,400 cases discharged

With 767 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, a total of 22,466 – over 60 per cent of total cases here – here have fully recovered from the infection, said the MOH on Monday.

Most of the 344 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, down from eight on Sunday.

A total of 12,458 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 24 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, nine others who tested positive for the virus have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and two whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

“Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count,” said the MOH in previous press releases, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.

As of 25 May, the ministry has conducted 334,691 swab tests, of which 218,996 were done on unique individuals. This translates to around 58,700 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and about 38,400 unique individuals swabbed per 1 million total population.

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