SINGAPORE - There were 301 new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Thursday noon (Aug 6), taking Singapore's total to 54,555.

They included four community cases, comprising three Singaporeans or permanent residents and a work pass holder, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday.

There were also four imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore.

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

More details will be announced on Thursday night.

On Wednesday, the Popular bookstore at Jurong Point was added to the list of public places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious.

According to MOH's update on Wednesday, the bookstore was visited by at least one Covid-19 case from 12.05pm to 2.30pm on July 26.

The ministry provides this list of locations that Covid-19 patients have visited for more than 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 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.

There were 908 new coronavirus cases confirmed on Wednesday, one of the highest number of daily cases recorded since cases exceeded 1,000 in April.

Among these, 903 were migrant workers in dormitories who were among the final batch of workers being cleared of the coronavirus, MOH said.

They came from dormitories with a relatively high prevalence of Covid-19 and were tested when they were already in isolation or in quarantine. Many were asymptomatic.

MOH added that all dormitories should be cleared by Friday, with the exception of a few blocks in dormitories that serve as quarantine facilities. These currently house about 9,700 workers in quarantine.

The remaining five cases announced on Wednesday were four imported patients and a case in the community.

MOH had said earlier on Wednesday that there were four cases in the community, but three were re-classified after contact tracing.

The sole community case was a 26-year-old Bangladeshi work permit holder who was picked up as a result of the ministry's proactive screening of those working in essential services. He was asymptomatic and was unlinked to known cases as of Wednesday. Further tests showed that he is no longer infectious and was likely to have been infected in the past.

All four imported cases announced on Wednesday arrived in Singapore from India on July 22 and were already serving mandatory stay-home notices at dedicated facilities when they were tested.

Three were dependant's pass holders - aged one, four and six. The last was a short-term visit pass holder, aged 63, whose application to enter Singapore was approved as she is an elderly woman whose family are Singapore residents, MOH said.

The average number of new daily community cases during a week has decreased from four cases two weeks ago to two in the past week. The average number of unlinked community cases per day has fallen from two to one over the same period.

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 18.9 million people. More than 710,200 people have died.