4 children, Changi Prison inmate among 19 new Covid-19 community cases

Learning Point tuition centre (left) and Changi Prison. ST PHOTOS: KEVIN LIM, FILE

Updated

Published

May 16, 2021, 01:37 AM

SINGAPORE - An inmate at Changi Prison Complex and four children were among the 19 new cases in the community announced on Saturday (May 15).

Two of the four children are linked to the Learning Point tuition centre cluster.

Both of them, aged 8 and 12, are pupils of St Andrew's Junior School and took the same school bus as a pupil who attended enrichment classes at Learning Point and was later confirmed to have Covid-19.

This brings the total number of patients in the Learning Point cluster to nine, after a 50-year-old woman who works as a tutor there was confirmed to have Covid-19 on Wednesday.

The remaining two children are a 6-year-old boy who is a pupil at Palm View Primary School and a 7-year-old boy who is a pupil at Yio Chu Kang Primary School.

Both cases are linked to the operating theatre nurse who worked at Sengkang General Hospital.

Of the 19 cases in the community, 17 are linked to previous cases. They include a prison inmate who is a 32-year-old Singaporean man who was a close contact of the chef who works at Changi Prison Complex.

Meanwhile, eight of the new community cases were linked to the Changi Airport cluster, taking the total number to 68. They include staff working in Changi Airport, employees of Ramky Cleantech Services and family members of other cases in the cluster.

The other linked community cases include a 55-year-old woman who is a housewife, linked to a 22-year-old male Singaporean who works as a cook at Wok Hey (White Sands); a 70-year-old retiree who is linked to a household member, a 70-year-old woman; a 41-year-old man who works in sales and is linked to a Kong Hwa School pupil; and an 80-year old woman who was warded in Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) Ward 9D. She is linked to the TTSH cluster.

There are also two unlinked cases, a 53-year-old chauffeur and a 49-year-old man who is currently unemployed.

There were also 12 imported cases announced on Saturday, bringing Singapore's total to 61,536. All of the imported cases had been placed on stay-home notice on arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

The cluster at Changi Airport is currently the largest. Airport workers have been infected and the worry now is the leakage of hidden cases into the broader community. Here‘s a look at how the virus took off from Ground Zero of the airport.

MOH added that the number of new cases in the community increased from 43 cases two weeks ago to 103 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week also increased, from six cases to 16 over the same period.

A total of 190 patients remain in hospital, including three in critical condition in the intensive care unit, while 253 are recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 31 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.