Covid-19 testing completed for nursing home residents and staff; no new cases found apart from 5 earlier ones

Medical staff are seen during a mass swabbing exercise to test for Covid-19 at All Saints Home (Jurong East). PHOTO: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM

SINGAPORE - All nursing home staff members and residents have now been tested, said the Health Ministry (MOH).

After one round of surveillance swab tests conducted on about 13,200 residents and 9,000 staff, only five have tested positive. Four are residents of Orange Valley Nursing Home and the staff member is from Ren Ci @ Ang Mo Kio. The confirmed cases had been announced on May 21 and May 8 respectively.

Parkway Parade shopping centre has also been added to the MOH's list of public places visited by local community cases while they were infected.

This comes as MOH confirmed 518 new coronavirus cases in Singapore on Sunday (May 31), bringing the total number of cases to 34,884.

Of the new cases, 516 were migrant workers residing in dormitories while one was a Singaporean and the other was a permanent resident.

Both are currently unlinked and were confirmed to have the coronavirus diseases on Saturday.

The Singapore citizen is a 73-year-old woman who first had symptoms on May 26, while the permanent resident is an 18-year-old male who first had symptoms on May 28.

MOH also said it has completed one round of swab tests for all nursing home staff and residents on May 8 and Saturday, respectively. No new cases were discovered.

There were no imported cases.

A new cluster at a dormitory in 128 Tuas South Avenue 3 was confirmed on Sunday, while a cluster at the Institute of Mental Health has been closed as no new cases were linked to it for two incubation periods of the virus, or 28 days.

Other places visited by community cases - which excludes migrant workers living in dorms -include Jurong Point, Bukit Panjang Plaza, Jem, and Junction 8.

The full list, along with the dates and times when the locations were visited by the patients, can be found on the MOH website.

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The daily average for new community cases has decreased to four in the past week from six the week before, said MOH.

Across the same periods, the number of unlinked cases has remained stable at an average of two per day.

MOH also said 972 more patients were discharged on Sunday, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 21,690.

Singapore has seen 23 deaths from Covid-19 complications and nine patients who tested positive for Covid-19 died of other causes.

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