Three new clusters; two at Toa Payoh, Punggol bus interchanges

All staff at Punggol Bus Interchange and Toa Payoh Bus Interchange will be tested for Covid-19, after clusters were detected at these places yesterday.

There are 11 cases linked to Punggol Bus Interchange, comprising 10 employees and a household contact of a staff member.

The Toa Payoh Bus Interchange cluster has 25 cases, all of whom are staff working there.

In its daily update, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said it is investigating both clusters, adding that all close contacts of cases will be placed in quarantine.

With these, there are four active Covid-19 clusters linked to bus interchanges, including those in Bishan and Sengkang, which were both announced on Aug 14.

The cluster at Sengkang Bus Interchange remained at 22 cases, while the Bishan Bus Interchange cluster grew to 21 cases, with two infections added yesterday.

MOH also announced a third new cluster at Bangkit 257 Coffee House in Bukit Panjang, which has three cases.

There are 68 active clusters, each having between three and 1,155 infections.

In all, there were 112 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases yesterday.

Of these, 40 new cases were added to the Bugis Junction cluster, which now has 101 cases.

Of the remaining 72 local cases, 31 were linked to previous cases and already in quarantine. Another 17 linked cases were not in quarantine when they tested positive.

The remaining 24 were unlinked cases.

There were also four imported cases that were detected and placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.

Three of these cases were detected upon arrival, while one developed the illness during stay-home notice or isolation.

There are currently 343 cases hospitalised, 17 of whom have serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation. Seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased to 405 cases in the past week, from 290 cases in the week before.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased to 126 cases in the past week, from 78 cases in the week before.

As at Wednesday, 79 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, while 83 per cent have received at least one dose.