Coronavirus pandemic
Coronavirus: 334 new cases; man from Safra Jurong cluster is 10th patient to die here
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Stricter measures have been rolled out, such as making it mandatory to wear a mask when out of the house.
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Singapore reported 334 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 3,252.
This was the second-highest single-day spike after Monday's all-time high of 386 new cases.
A 70-year-old Singaporean man also became the 10th person to die from complications owing to Covid-19, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily update.
The man, who was Case 128, was part of the Safra Jurong cluster and had attended a dinner event on Feb 15 at Joy Garden Restaurant.
He tested positive on March 6 and was warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
The NCID has reached out to his family and is extending help to them, the ministry said yesterday.
Another 25 patients have recovered and were discharged, bringing the total number to 611.
Of the 334 new cases, 198 were linked to known clusters, with the vast majority being work permit holders in foreign worker dormitories, the ministry said.
One new patient, a 35-year-old Bangladeshi man, was linked to 10 earlier cases. The 11 patients, comprising nine men from Bangladesh and two from India, are part of a new cluster at PPT Lodge 1A, which is a foreign worker dormitory at 8 Seletar North Link.
Singapore's largest cluster, the S11 Dormitory, which is at 2 Seletar North Link and is also known as PPT Lodge 1B, saw another 132 new cases. It now has a total of 718 cases.
The cluster at Sungei Tengah Lodge - the second-largest - saw 32 new cases, bringing its total to 188.
Besides those linked to dormitories, another 22 new cases were linked to other previous cases. They comprise 10 Singapore citizens or permanent residents and 12 work permit holders.
A further 114 cases were unlinked and pending contact tracing. There were no new imported cases for the fifth day in a row.
Commenting on the unlinked cases yesterday, MOH's director of medical services, Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, said they do not necessarily mean there is an unknown source of transmission and, as a result, community spread.
Some of the numbers are from active testing done in different settings - both larger purpose-built dormitories and other smaller ones - and it takes time to compile and match the figures, he said. "So, in fact, out of the proportion that are as yet unlinked, you will find that in the next few days, that number will whittle down progressively as we link them to existing clusters."
