242 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including 1 in the community and six imported

[SINGAPORE] There were 242 new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Friday noon (Aug 7), taking Singapore's total to 54,797.

They included a community case which is a Singaporean and six imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday.

Migrant workers living in dormitories made up the vast majority of the other cases.

On Thursday, an ActiveSG gym in Bukit Batok, a Sheng Siong store in Teban Gardens Road and FairPrice Hub's Decathlon outlet were added by MOH to its list of places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious.

The ministry provides the list of locations and times that infectious Covid-19 patients visited for at least 30 minutes to get those who were at these places at specific periods to monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

The full list of locations and times can be found on MOH's website.

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Friday, 8.30 am

Asean Business

Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies.

Sign Up

The ministry has said that close contacts would already have been notified and that there is no need to avoid these places as they would have been cleaned, if needed.

There were 301 new coronavirus cases announced by MOH on Thursday.

They included four community cases comprising two Singaporeans, one permanent resident and a work permit holder.

Of the four community cases, two were picked up as a result of the ministry's proactive surveillance and screening, while another two were detected through MOH's proactive testing.

There were also four new imported cases comprising one Singaporean, two work pass holders and one dependant's pass holder.

They had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore from Kazakhstan and India on July 25, and were tested while serving their notices. The four imported patients, aged between 19 and 49, were confirmed to be positive on Wednesday and Thursday.

Migrant workers living in dormitories made up the 293 remaining cases announced on Thursday.

MOH also said the inter-agency task force set up to support foreign workers and dormitory operators has been systematically and progressively clearing dormitories through aggressive testing of migrant workers residing in dorms.

Fourteen more of these dorms - which include the ones at 5 Kaki Bukit Industrial Terrace, 10 Kranji Link and 119 Tuas View Walk 1 - have been cleared.

These dorms now house only recovered individuals and those who have recently tested negative for Covid-19 infection. As a result, the coronavirus clusters linked to them have now been closed.

MOH added that the average number of new daily cases in the community in a week has decreased from three cases two weeks ago to two in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has remained stable at an average of one case per day in the past two weeks.

With 263 cases discharged on Thursday, 48,016 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 112 patients remained in hospital while 6,385 were recuperating in community facilities as of Thursday. None were in intensive care.

Singapore has had 27 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 19.2 million people. More than 716,400 people have died.

THE STRAITS TIMES