Dengue clusters in Choa Chu Kang, MacPherson, Kaki Bukit, Ubi of concern: NEA

Dengue clusters in Choa Chu Kang, MacPherson, Kaki Bukit and Ubi remain areas of concern, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Monday, calling for vigilance as it is still peak dengue season with 443 new cases reported last week. -- PHOTO: S
Dengue clusters in Choa Chu Kang, MacPherson, Kaki Bukit and Ubi remain areas of concern, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Monday, calling for vigilance as it is still peak dengue season with 443 new cases reported last week. -- PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - Dengue clusters in Choa Chu Kang, MacPherson, Kaki Bukit and Ubi remain areas of concern, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Monday, calling for vigilance as it is still peak dengue season with 443 new cases reported last week.

At Choa Chu Kang, home to the biggest dengue cluster in mid-July, five new cases were reported in the last two weeks. While the number of infections has slowed down, the agency urged residents to remove stagnant water in their homes as most of the breeding spots were found there.

As of last Friday, there were six dengue clusters in the Choa Chu Kang/Keat Hong constituencies, with 770 cases in total. A majority, or 567 cases, were nearby residents while 203 were workers from three construction sites - Keat Hong Sunshine Gardens, Keat Hong Pride, Keat Hong Crescent.

Stop work orders issued to the main contractors of the three sites were lifted on Aug 1 "as the contractors have demonstrated adequate preventive housekeeping", said NEA. It will continue to inspect these sites weekly, it said.

MacPherson had seven dengue clusters as of last Friday. Of the 330 cases, about three-quarters came from two clusters at Circuit Road and Balam Road. Most of the cases in the past two weeks were residents. NEA and the town council have stepped up inspections and no breeding has been found in construction sites so far, said NEA.

At Kaki Bukit and Ubi, home to three dengue clusters and 61 cases, most cases are workers in the industrial area. NEA has in the past week deployed 100 officers to carry out search-and-destroy operations at these clusters, and have found 10 breeding habitats.

There have been more than 13,000 dengue cases so far this year. NEA has issued 598 notices to attend court and 71 stop work orders. Of these, 14 contractors have been prosecuted in court for repeat offences.

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