Coronavirus: 198 new cases of infection, seventh death reported; 2,108 cases now

Singapore reported 198 new cases of Covid-19 infection on April 10, 2020. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG

SINGAPORE - There were 198 new cases of Covid-19 infection in Singapore on Friday (April 10), bringing the total number of infections across the 2,000-mark to 2,108.

In addition, an 86-year-old woman has died from complications due to the infection on Thursday night, the seventh such death in Singapore.

The Singaporean was a resident at the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home - which saw a cluster of 16 cases. She is the second from the home to die from the coronavirus.

She had been admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases on April 1 and confirmed to have the infection on the same day.

Many of the new infections were reported at foreign worker dormitories, according to figures released by the Ministry of Health (MOH). There were 79 cases linked to clusters at foreign worker dormitories and 48 linked to non-dormitory clusters or other cases.

There are now 10 clusters in dormitories.

Contact tracing is underway to find links to previous known cases or clusters for 71 new cases. No imported cases were reported.

Three new clusters were formed, said MOH, comprising one at the ICA Building in Kallang and two involving foreign workers.

On the ICA Building cluster, MOH said one of the newly confirmed cases is linked to four previous cases. ICA said it will close the building for cleaning on Saturday in accordance with NEA guidelines for environmental cleaning and disinfection of areas for Covid-19 cases.

The second new cluster is made up of four confirmed cases in a dormitory at 31 Sungei Kadut Avenue. The dormitory is run by Kakiko Group, a firm which brands itself as a built-environment resource business group.

The third new cluster, a renovation site at the National University Hospital, has been found to have 14 cases.

MOH said there were also two new cases of Covid-19 patients in the healthcare sector.

One is a doctor at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the ministry said, adding that a previous patient is also a doctor at the same hospital.

Both are 26 year-old Singaporean women who are close contacts.

Neither has recent travel history to affected countries or regions.

Both are now warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

Prior to hospital admission, they had gone to work but only had transient contact with patients, MOH said.

The other healthcare staff confirmed on Friday is a 35-year-old Singaporean who works as a patient service associate at Hougang Polyclinic.

She had not gone to work since she started showing symptoms on April 4 and is now warded in an isolation room at Sengkang General Hospital.

To date, a total of 492 cases have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.

Of the 875 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving, while 32 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 734 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

As of 12pm on Friday, MOH has identified 22,674 close contacts who have been quarantined.

Of these, 7,723 are currently quarantined and 14,951 have completed their quarantine.

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