Hindu temple in Yishun added to list of places visited by infectious Covid-19 cases

Holy Tree Sri Balasubramaniar Temple was visited by a Covid-19 patient while the person was still infectious. PHOTO: HOLY TREE SRI BALASUBRAMANIAR TEMPLE

SINGAPORE - A Hindu temple was added to the list of places visited by Covid-19 cases while they were still infectious, according to an update by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday (Aug 4).

The Holy Tree Sri Balasubramaniar Temple at 10 Yishun Industrial Park A was visited by at least one case on July 31 from 7pm to 9pm.

The ministry provides the list of locations that Covid-19 patients have visited for at least 30 minutes to get those who were at these places to monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

It has said that close contacts would already have been notified and that there is no need to avoid these places as they would have been cleaned if needed.

The full list can be found on MOH's website.

There were 295 new coronavirus cases confirmed on Tuesday, including two community cases and seven imported ones.

All seven imported cases had recently arrived in Singapore from India, with the youngest being a five-year-old boy who has been linked to a previous case.

The Indian national holds a dependant's pass and was confirmed to have the coronavirus on Monday.

Another imported case is a 19-year-old student's pass holder from India. The remaining five imported cases comprise two permanent residents, two work pass holders and another dependant's pass holder.

The two community cases are a Singaporean woman and a Bangladeshi work pass holder.

The 31-year-old Singaporean woman was asymptomatic but was identified through the ministry's proactive screening of workers in essential services.

The 46-year-old work pass holder was already in quarantine as a contact of a previously confirmed case and tested positive on Monday, despite being asymptomatic.

Migrant workers living in dormitories made up the remaining 286 cases, taking Singapore's total to 53,346.

The average number of new daily cases in the community during a week has decreased from four cases two weeks ago to two in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community during a week has also fallen from a daily average of two cases to one over the same period.

With 275 cases discharged on Tuesday, 47,439 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 125 patients remain in hospital, including one in the intensive care unit. One patient was reported to be in the ICU on Monday, the first such patient in more than two weeks since July 13.

Another 5,740 patients are recuperating in community facilities as of Tuesday.

Singapore has had 27 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said late Tuesday night that another 127 dormitories have been cleared of Covid-19, bringing the total number of dormitories cleared to 1,109.

MOM said it continues to expect all dorms to be cleared by August, with the exception of 17 standalone blocks in eight purpose-built dorms which will serve as quarantine facilities.

To date, about 265,000 workers in the construction, marine shipyard and process sector - which have been one of the worst affected industries - have been given the green light to return to work. Two weeks ago, the figure was 186,000.

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