7 more worker dorms cleared of Covid-19 patients

[SINGAPORE] Seven worker dormitories have been cleared of patients who test positive for the Covid-19 virus, and now house only recovered individuals and those who have recently tested negative for the virus.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Wednesday (July 8) that the inter-agency task force has been clearing dormitories through aggressive testing of migrant workers residing in dormitories.

The seven dormitories, which are also now closed clusters, are at Tuas South Street 12, 109 Ubi Avenue 4, 11 Defu Lane 1, 12 Kwong Min Road, 18 Woodlands Industrial Park E1, 55 Genting Lane and 6 Tuas View Square.

MOH also announced on Wednesday that a 69 year-old Singaporean man who had a history of medical problems including diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease died on Tuesday, the same day he was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection.

The preliminary cause of death is cardio-respiratory failure, pending further investigations by the coroner.

He was found unresponsive at his place of residence and was taken to Sengkang General Hospital's emergency department on Tuesday where he was confirmed to have the virus.

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He is Singapore's 13th case of a patient who tested positive for the coronavirus but died from other causes.

On Wednesday, MOH added Penang Culture, Don Don Donki at Jem and the Singtel outlet in Jurong Point to its list of places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious.

Those who were there at the time should monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

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

The full list can be found on MOH's website.

Of the nine cases in the community, three are linked to previous cases or clusters while six are currently unlinked.

Two of the linked cases had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had been tested during their quarantine. The remaining case is asymptomatic, and was detected as a result of proactive screening of workers in essential services.

There were three imported Covid-19 cases announced on Wednesday.

They are two Indian nationals who are dependant's pass holders, and had returned to Singapore from India on June 26, and a Singaporean who had returned to Singapore from the Philippines on June 26.

All three had been placed on 14-day stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving the notices.

Migrant workers living in dormitories make up the remaining 146 cases, taking Singapore's total to 45,298.

The MOH also announced new cluster at a dormitory at 12 Kian Teck Crescent.

The average number of new cases in the community per day has increased to 14 in the past week, from eight in the week before that.

The average number of unlinked cases in the community per day has increased to six in the past week, from four in the week before that.

With 321 cases discharged on Wednesday, 41,310 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 215 patients remain in hospital, including one in the intensive care unit, while 3,734 are recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 26 deaths from Covid-19 complications.

THE STRAITS TIMES