4 new coronavirus clusters in dorms and worksite in Singapore

[SINGAPORE] Four clusters comprising three dormitories and one worksite have emerged on Thursday (June 4).

The worksite is in Kampong Bugis, while the three dorms are at 212 Tagore Lane, 63 Tuas South Avenue 1 and 109 Ubi Avenue 4.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) also said that there were no Singaporeans among the 15 new cases announced earlier on Thursday.

The new cases comprise two permanent residents, six work pass holders and seven work permit holders. The work pass and work permit holders are Indian nationals.

All 15 are men who are asymptomatic and were swabbed as they are close contacts of previously confirmed cases. They had all also already been placed on quarantine.

Of the 15, 13, including one of the PRs, reside in a shophouse at Veerasamy Road with an earlier confirmed case.

Among them, three have positive serological test results means they are past infections. Eight serological tests have come back negative meaning they are recent infection cases, and two results are pending.

The remaining work pass holder was a housemate of an earlier confirmed case in Bendemeer Road, and has been quarantined at a government quarantine facility since May 30. He is a case of a past infection.

The remaining permanent resident case is a household contact of previously confirmed cases, and has been placed on quarantine since May 7. Epidemiological investigations are ongoing to determine if this is a past infection, MOH said.

The 15 community cases on Thursday is the highest number of community cases recorded since MOH started including work pass holders not living in dormitories to its count of community cases on May 20. Before this, the last time community infections were higher than Thursday's count was on April 27, when there were 18 recorded.

Foreign workers living in dormitories make up the rest of the 517 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country's total to 36,922. More than one in ten among this group have now tested positive for the virus.

There were no imported cases, and 99 per cent of the new cases are linked to known clusters.

A cluster at 3 Buroh Lane has been closed as no new cases were linked to it for two incubation periods of the virus, or 28 days.

MOH also added a new time slot for the NTUC Fairprice outlet in Taman Jurong Shopping Centre at 399 Yung Sheng Road to the list of places and times visited by community cases. A confirmed case had visited the mall between 4pm and 4.30pm on May 25.

Other places visited by community cases while they were infectious include wet markets, supermarkets, hawker centres, and malls such as Jurong Point, Parkway Parade, Jem and Junction 8.

The full list of places, along with the dates and times when the locations were visited by the patients, are on MOH's website.

While there is no need to avoid these places, those who have gone to these places should monitor their health closely for 14 days from the date they visited, said MOH, adding that they should visit a doctor promptly if they develop fever, respiratory symptoms or loss of taste or smell.

Those who were identified as close contacts of confirmed cases would already have been notified by MOH, said the ministry.

The daily average for new community cases has decreased to five in the past week from six the week before, said MOH. Across the same periods, the number of unlinked cases has remained stable at an average of two per day.

A total of 322 more patients were discharged on Thursday, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 23,895.

Currently, 303 confirmed cases are still in hospital with five of them in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Another 12,691 are isolated and cared for at community facilities, which are for those with mild symptoms or who are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.

Twenty-four people have died from Covid-19 complications in Singapore, and nine patients who tested positive for Covid-19 died of other causes.

THE STRAITS TIMES