Coronavirus pandemic

682 Covid-19 cases; 4 Singaporeans, including man working in dorm

Migrant workers living in dormitories form the bulk of the remaining cases. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Updated

Published

May 18, 2020, 05:00 AM

A total of 682 Covid-19 cases were confirmed yesterday, taking Singapore's count to 28,038.

Among the new cases announced were four Singaporeans, including a 24-year-old man working in CDPL Tuas dormitory, which has been linked to 452 cases.

A 93-year-old Singaporean woman, who has yet to be linked to any existing clusters, was also among the new cases.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) identified one new cluster at 9 Sungei Kadut Avenue, which is linked to 13 earlier confirmed cases.

Yesterday's new cases included four work permit holders who do not live in worker dormitories and one work pass holder.

Two of the work permit holders are flatmates who had been identified as contacts of an earlier confirmed case, and placed on quarantine since April 29. They were confirmed to have the coronavirus when they were tested at the end of their quarantine period.

The remaining 673 cases are workers staying in dormitories.

Of the new cases, 99 per cent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing, MOH said. There were no new imported cases.

A total of 998 cases were discharged yesterday, continuing the recent trend of around 1,000 patients being discharged each day.

The ministry has uncovered links for 17 previously unlinked cases in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has decreased in the past week, from an average of three cases per day in the week before to an average of two per day in the past week ending on Saturday.

Similarly, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of eight cases per day in the week before, to an average of three per day in the past week.

MOH said it will continue to monitor the number of cases identified in the community, as well as cases detected through its surveillance programme.

The number of cases among work permit holders residing outside dormitories has also dipped, from an average of five cases per day in the week before to an average of two per day in the past week.

To date, 9,340 people have fully recovered from Covid-19 since the first case was reported on Jan 23 and discharged from either hospitals or community care facilities.

A total of 1,210 patients remain in hospital. Of these, 16 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A further 17,466 cases are isolated and being cared for at community facilities, with only mild symptoms or who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.

So far, 22 people have died from complications due to Covid-19. Nine others who tested positive for the virus died from other causes.

The most recent fatality was a 67-year-old Singaporean man, who died last Friday from complications due to Covid-19 infection.

According to the ministry's update on Saturday, the man was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection on April 7, and had a history of ischaemic heart disease, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia.

The coronavirus outbreak began in December last year, and has infected more than 4.6 million people and killed more than 310,000 people worldwide.