Jem, Westgate declared centre of new cluster with four cases

The adjacent malls of Jem and Westgate in Jurong East were declared the centre of a new community cluster yesterday, with four cases now linked to them.

Giving details of these as well as others in the 21 community cases announced yesterday, the Ministry of Health said the four included a music teacher at Yamaha Music School who developed a fever and sought treatment five days later.

The 59-year-old had felt sick on May 16, gone to a general practitioner's clinic on May 21, and had an antigen rapid test come back positive on the same day.

He was immediately isolated.

The other three individuals linked to the cluster include a 39-year-old cleaner at Westgate and a 44-year-old visitor, whose preliminary tests have come back positive for the B1617 variant.

The last is a 31-year-old delivery truck driver who was detected during testing for people who worked in or had visited Jem and Westgate.

The two malls are now closed for two weeks, during which they will be cleaned.

Other community cases include three connected to a large cluster at Changi Airport Terminal 3 - a seven-year-old boy whose family had visited the airport on many occasions; a 78-year-old woman linked to the cluster at Tan Tock Seng Hospital; and a four-year-old girl at Heartfield Kindergarten who has been linked to a 53-year-old personal chauffeur.

Among the new cases is also a 27-year-old woman who works in an administrative role at St Luke's Hospital. She was last at work on May 12 and was already on quarantine as she was a close contact of a factory operator at SMS InfoComm, the centre of another cluster.

Of the community cases, 12 were on quarantine when they tested positive.

There were two unlinked community cases.

The first is a vaccinated 60-year-old woman who was detected during testing for residents of Block 506 Hougang Avenue 8.

The second is a 74-year-old woman who developed body aches, vomiting and chills on May 19 and who sought medical treatment on the same day, but was not tested for Covid-19 as she did not report any acute respiratory infection symptoms.

Her condition worsened on May 22 and she was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

She is also vaccinated.

Other than the 21 community cases, a 46-year-old man residing in a dormitory - a construction worker at H&W Communications - also returned a positive test.

He is asymptomatic and was detected when he was tested on May 22 as part of routine testing.

He is also currently unlinked.

There were three imported cases who were on stay-home notice when they were tested.

Counting local and imported infections, 25 cases of Covid-19 were reported, taking Singapore's total to 61,824.

As at yesterday, the number of new cases in the community increased from 131 cases two weeks ago to 182 in the past week.

Unlinked cases per week were also up, from 30 two weeks ago to 46 in the past week.

A total of 17 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 61,279.

There are currently 242 active cases who are still in hospital, including three in the intensive care unit. Another 256 are in isolation in community facilities.

There have been 32 deaths here due to complications from the coronavirus, while another 15 who tested positive for the virus have died of other causes.

In community: 21

Imported: 3

In dormitories: 1

New community cases in the past week: 182 (46 unlinked cases)

In hospitals: 242 (3 in ICU)

In community facilities: 256

Discharged yesterday: 17