23 new cases in Singapore, with 18 of them imported

Twenty-three new coronavirus cases were announced last night by the Ministry of Health (MOH), bringing the total number in Singapore to 455.

Of these, 18 were imported cases who had travelled to Europe, North America, South America and Asean.

Almost all of these new imported cases were returning residents and long-term pass holders, with only one short-term visitor - a 55-year-old American woman who was admitted to Singapore General Hospital.

Half of the imported cases had travelled to Britain.

Five locally transmitted cases were also announced yesterday.

Two are currently not linked to any previous cases. Of the three that are, one of them, Case 443, is linked to the Boulder+ climbing gym cluster, which now has six cases in total.

He is a 29-year-old Singaporean man now warded at National University Hospital.

Out of the 23 new cases, 19 were admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

MOH also said four more cases have been discharged, bringing the total of fully recovered patients to 144. Of the 309 still in hospital, most are stable or improving. A total of 14 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Singapore saw its first two deaths from the Covid-19 outbreak last Saturday - a 75-year-old Singaporean woman linked to The Life Church and Missions Singapore cluster, and a 64-year-old Indonesian man.

Both had a history of heart disease and died of complications.

As of noon yesterday, 2,310 close contacts of cases are currently quarantined, and 5,647 have completed their quarantine.

Most of the new patients in Singapore recently have been imported cases, which now outnumber those transmitted locally.

The Government has since tightened border controls, with all short-term visitors barred from Singapore from 11.59pm today.

Safe-distancing measures such as smaller crowd sizes have also been implemented.