793 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore

[SINGAPORE] A total of 793 new Covid-19 cases have been preliminarily confirmed on Friday (May 15), taking the total count in Singapore to 26,891.

Singapore expects the number of Covid-19 cases to increase when it allows more activities to resume and for this reason, it is moving cautiously despite the low number of cases in the community, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Friday.

To help curtail the rise, contact tracing and quarantine efforts will be stepped up to minimise the risk of large clusters forming, he added at a virtual press conference.

The minister was replying to a question on whether Singapore has successfully "flattened the curve" for community cases, or limited the number to an extent that the healthcare system is not overwhelmed.

The number of daily new cases in the community has been declining after it peaked at 58 cases on April 8, a day after the circuit breaker period kicked in.

Mr Gan attributes the slide primarily to the circuit breaker measures.

These include getting people to work from home and halting the bulk of construction work in Singapore, he added.

But, he said, "as some of the circuit breaker measures are rolled back and relaxed, we are likely to see the number of community cases going up.

"We hope that if we do it carefully and do it right, even as it goes up, it will continue to go up slowly and remains under control."

Otherwise, big clusters may form again, he added.

21 people have so far died from complications due to Covid-19, while nine others who tested positive for the virus died from other causes.

Globally, the outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 4.5 million people. About 303,000 people have died. The United States remains the country worst hit, with more than 1.4 million cases and 86,000 deaths from Covid-19 as at Friday.

THE STRAITS TIMES