New Covid-19 cluster at madrasah in Braddell Road; Jurong Fishery Port cluster closed

A new Covid-19 cluster has emerged at Madrasah Irsyad Zuhri Al-Islamiah. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM GOOGLE MAPS

SINGAPORE - Singapore's largest Covid-19 cluster in the community has been declared closed, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its daily update on Tuesday (Sept 7).

The cluster linked to the Jurong Fishery Port and the Hong Lim Market and Food Centre, which had a total of 1,155 cases, has had no cases linked to it for a few weeks now.

The cluster, which surfaced on July 16, resulted in the virus spreading to more than 30 wet markets and causing some to be shut temporarily.

There was also anxiety among marketgoers, who rushed to wet markets after the two-week closure of Jurong Fishery Port was announced, fearing there would be a shortage of chilled seafood supplies.

It also prompted major supermarket chains to ramp up their stocks.

The spike in Covid-19 cases led to tightened measures, as Singapore returned to phase two (heightened alert) on July 22. Restrictions were gradually eased last month.

However, a new cluster has emerged at Madrasah Irsyad Zuhri Al-Islamiah, an Islamic religious school in Braddell Road, with eight cases in total. Six cases were added to the cluster on Tuesday.

The growing cluster linked to staff at eight bus interchanges now stands at 537, with 28 new cases added.

This is almost double the total number of cases linked to the bus interchanges on Aug 31, when it stood at 276.

Toa Payoh Bus Interchange has the most number of cases, with 174 cases in total, after 13 new cases were added.

No new cases were added to the Punggol, Sengkang and Bishan interchanges.

Twenty new cases were added to the construction site at 30 Sunview Way, which was previously known as the Westlite Kranji Way cluster. It has a total of 26 cases.

Meanwhile, the Bugis Junction cluster added seven new cases, bringing its total to 291.

Three new cases were also linked to the Changi General Hospital cluster, which now stands at 54.

MOH said there are currently 53 active clusters, with infections ranging from three to 291 each.

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Singapore reported a total of 332 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, including 328 locally transmitted cases and four imported ones.

There were 185 unlinked locally transmitted cases, the highest number of unlinked cases in Singapore so far.

Four of the locally transmitted cases were seniors aged above 70 who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, and at risk of serious illness.

There are 643 Covid-19 patients still in hospital.

These include six in critical condition in the intensive care unit, and 24 who require oxygen support.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 771 in the week before to 1,489 in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has also increased from 184 to 677 over the same period.

MOH said around 8.8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered under Singapore's national vaccination programme.

As at Monday, 81 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, while 83 per cent have received at least one dose, added the ministry.

Singapore has had 55 deaths from Covid-19 complications.

Read the full MOH press release here.

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