Woman who went to work at Bishan MRT station among two new coronavirus cases

Commuters exit a train at Bishan MRT station on May 15, 2020. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

A 58-year-old woman who went to work at Bishan MRT station was among two new Singaporean coronavirus cases announced yesterday.

She began showing symptoms of the virus last Thursday and was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Sunday.

The other Singaporean is a 50-year-old man who went to work at 1020 Tai Seng Avenue, an active cluster that already had 124 cases linked to it.

He began experiencing symptoms last Wednesday and was confirmed to have the virus on Sunday.

The 305 new confirmed cases yesterday are the lowest Singapore has recorded since April 12 when there were 233 new cases.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) also announced four new clusters in its daily update.

The clusters are at 2 Kampong Ampat in Tai Seng, 43 Tuas View Close, 117 Tuas View Walk 1 and 7 Woodlands Industrial Park E1.

The cluster in ABC Hostel at 3 Jalan Kubor has been closed as there have been no more cases linked to it for the past 28 days, or two incubation periods.

Foreign workers living in dormitories continued to form the bulk of the new cases, making up yesterday's remaining 303 new cases.

Taking into account the new cases, 26,090, or more than 8 per cent, of the 323,000 foreign workers who live in dormitories here have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Yesterday's lower number of new cases is partly owing to fewer tests being processed because one testing laboratory is reviewing its processes following an earlier apparatus calibration issue.

  • Update on cases

  • NEW CASES: 305

    Imported: 0

    Work permit (WP) holders in dormitories: 303


    COMMUNITY CASES

    Singaporeans/PRs: 2

    Work passes: 0

    Visit passes: 0

    WP holders outside dorms: 0


    CASES TO DATE

    Total: 28,343

    Community: 1,310

    WP holders not in dorms: 363

    WP holders in dorms: 26,090

    Imported: 580

    In ICU now: 12

    Deaths from Covid-19: 22

    Deaths from other causes: 9

The lab will need time to boost its testing capacity, MOH said.

It had similarly said last Saturday that fewer tests were processed on that day because of a testing lab reviewing its processes.

A total of 495 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals or community facilities, the ministry said yesterday.

This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases that have fully recovered and been discharged to 9,826, or about 35 per cent of the total 28,343 cases.

This is the sixth consecutive day in which the number of patients discharged exceeded the new cases.

The daily average of new cases outside dormitories has continued to decline.

For Singaporeans, permanent residents and pass holders, it fell from seven cases two weeks ago to three in the past week. The corresponding figures for work permit holders living outside dormitories in the same period are four and one.

The number of cases among Singaporeans, permanent residents and pass holders that are unlinked remained stable at two per day in the past two weeks.

Of the new cases, only 1 per cent was unlinked, and contact tracing is ongoing.

A total of 1,036 Covid-19 patients are in hospital, with 12 in critical condition in intensive care. Another 17,450 patients are at community facilities.

Twenty-two died from Covid-19 complications while nine who tested positive died from other causes.

Globally, the outbreak, which began last December, has infected more than 4.8 million people. About 317,000 have died.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 19, 2020, with the headline Woman who went to work at Bishan MRT station among two new coronavirus cases. Subscribe