Dormitories are in the spotlight again as most of the 287 new coronavirus cases announced yesterday - seven in 10 - are linked to clusters at foreign worker dormitories.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said that of the new cases, 217 are related to existing clusters. Among these, 202 are linked to clusters at foreign worker dormitories.

Furthermore, a new cluster at another dormitory, Shaw Lodge in Tai Seng, has emerged. Five cases announced earlier are linked to it.

The S11 Dormitory cluster in Punggol swelled with an additional 166 new cases, making it the largest cluster here with 283 cases, close to 15 per cent of all cases in Singapore.

Aside from S11 Dormitory and Shaw Lodge, 11 cases are linked to the cluster at Westlite Toh Guan dormitory, bringing its total cases to 49, while two cases are linked to Toh Guan Dormitory, which now has 25 cases. Both dormitories are in Jurong East and, along with S11 Dormitory, have been gazetted as isolation areas. This means that workers will be quarantined in their rooms for 14 days.

Other clusters at dormitories - Sungei Tengah Lodge, Tampines Dormitory, Cochrane Lodge I, Kranji Lodge and 55 Sungei Kadut Loop - also had more patients linked to them, adding between one and 17 new cases.

MOH said the cause of death of a 32-year-old long-term pass holder announced earlier on Wednesday was heart disease, not complications from Covid-19. The Indian national had died while waiting for his Covid-19 test results, which turned out to be positive.

Just three of the new cases announced yesterday are imported, and of the 284 cases that are locally transmitted, 19 cases are linked to other cases, while 48 are not known to be linked to previous cases and contact tracing is ongoing.

This brings the total number of coronavirus patients here to 1,910.

MOH also said that 54 patients were discharged yesterday. To date, a total of 460 cases have fully recovered from the infection.

Of the 884 confirmed cases still in hospital, most are stable or improving, with 29 in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Another 559 people who are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at private hospitals and other facilities.

Six have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.