Coronavirus: Safety

NTU eateries among places visited by patients; new cluster of 14 cases at Punggol dorm

Nanyang Technological University's North Spine Food Court is among the latest places visited by infectious Covid-19 patients. PHOTOS: ST FILE, LIANHE ZAOBAO

At least one infectious coronavirus patient had visited several places in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) between Aug 25 and 28, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced yesterday.

Three locations in the university were added to a list of places visited by coronavirus patients while they were infectious.

They are: Quad Cafe at NTU's School of Biological Sciences, Korean eatery Paik's Bibim in NTU's North Spine Plaza, and the North Spine Food Court.

Also newly added to the list were foodcourt Essen at The Pinnacle @ Duxton, Yuhua Market and Hawker Centre and Apgujeong Hair Studio in Jem.

MOH provides the list of locations that infectious Covid-19 patients visited for at least 30 minutes and the times they visited them, to get people who were at those places at the same time to monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

The full list of locations and times can be found on MOH's website.

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

A new cluster in a dormitory was also announced yesterday. MOH said one of the newly confirmed cases is linked to 13 previous cases, forming a new cluster at S11 Dormitory @ Punggol, located at 2 Seletar North Link.

Among the 47 new cases reported yesterday, one was an imported case. The one-year-old Singaporean baby arrived from India on Aug 24. He had been placed on a 14-day stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore, and was tested while serving the notice at a dedicated facility.

Migrant workers staying in dormitories made up the remaining 46 new coronavirus patients announced yesterday, taking Singapore's total to 57,091.

Of the 46, 25 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission. They were tested during their quarantine period.

  • Update on cases

  • New cases: 47

    Imported: 1 (1 Singaporean)

    In community: 0

    In dormitories: 46

    Active cases: 603

    In hospitals: 48 (0 in ICU)

    In community facilities: 555

    Deaths: 27

    Patients with Covid-19 who died of other causes: 15

    Total discharged: 56,446

    Discharged yesterday: 53

    TOTAL CASES: 57,091

The remaining 21 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as biweekly rostered routine testing of workers staying in dormitories.

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

However, the number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has increased from a daily average of one case to two cases over the same period.

With 53 cases discharged yesterday, 56,446 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 48 patients remained in hospital yesterday, with none in intensive care, while 555 were recuperating in community facilities.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 09, 2020, with the headline NTU eateries among places visited by patients; new cluster of 14 cases at Punggol dorm. Subscribe