As of Sunday (5 April), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 120 additional Covid-19 cases, four were imported cases and 116 local cases.
This is the highest number of daily increase since Singapore saw its first case in January this year.
The local cases include 39 Singapore citizens or permanent residents and 76 long-term work pass holders. No further details of the cases have been provided by MOH.
Among the local cases, MOH has established links to existing clusters for 50 cases, however, it is unable to establish links for the remaining 66 cases and conducting contact tracing for them.
This brings the total number of infected cases in Singapore to 1,309 cases.
Links to previous clusters and new clusters:
- Three of the newly confirmed cases (Cases 1193, 1226, 1299) are linked to two previous cases (Case 1049 and 1140), forming a new cluster at Tampines Dormitory (2 Tampines Place).
- Two of the earlier confirmed cases (Cases 1018 and 1144) have now been linked to a new cluster at Cochrane Lodge I (51 Admiralty Road West).
- Four of the earlier confirmed cases (Cases 1049, 1012,1183, 1184) have now been linked to a new cluster at a construction site at 6 Battery Road.
- 22 additional cases are linked to the cluster at S11 Dormitory @ Punggol (2 Seletar North Link), which has a total of 63 confirmed cases now.
- 10 additional case is linked to the cluster at Westlite Toh Guan dormitory (18 Toh Guan Road East), which has a total of 28 confirmed cases now.
- Three additional cases are linked to the cluster at Toh Guan Dormitory (19A Toh Guan Road East), which has a total of eight confirmed cases now (Cases 963, 1079, 1106, 1148, 1150, 1195, 1254 and 1273).
- One additional case is linked to the cluster at Sungei Tengah Lodge (500 Old Choa Chu Kang Road), which has a total of four confirmed cases now (Cases 1054, 1077, 1124 and 1267).
- Three additional cases are linked to the cluster at a construction site at Project Glory (50 Market Street), which has a total of 15 confirmed cases now (Cases 956, 967, 1019, 1065, 1078, 1079, 1104, 1120, 1124, 1149, 1162, 1181, 1191, 1226 and 1273).
- Nine additional cases are linked to the cluster at Mustafa Centre (145 Syed Alwi Road), which has a total of 28 confirmed cases now.
- One additional case is linked to the cluster at Keppel Shipyard (51 Pioneer Sector 1), which has a total of seven cases now (Cases 878, 898, 907, 1076, 1158, 1172 and 1270).
Cases from public healthcare sector
Case 1237 is a 35 year-old female Singapore Citizen with no recent travel history to affected countries or regions. She reported onset of symptoms on 3 April, and subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on 4 April. She is currently warded in an isolation room at the Singapore General Hospital.
She is employed as a doctor at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital but had not gone to work since onset of symptoms.
Case 1238 is a 27 year-old male Indian national who is a Singapore Work Pass holder and has no recent travel history to affected countries or regions. He reported onset of symptoms on 3 April, and subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on 4 April afternoon. He is currently warded in an isolation room at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH).
He is employed as a technician at NTFGH and had been at work for less than an hour after onset of symptoms.
Update on condition of confirmed cases
To date, a total of 320 cases have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.
Of the 569 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving.
25 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 414 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19 are isolated and cared for at Concord International Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and the Community Isolation Facility at D’Resort NTUC.
Six have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.
Update on contact tracing for confirmed cases
Contact tracing for the confirmed cases is ongoing. Once identified, MOH will closely monitor all close contacts. As a precautionary measure, they will be quarantined for 14 days from their last exposure to the patient. In addition, all other identified contacts who have a low risk of being infected will be under active surveillance, and will be contacted daily to monitor their health status.
As of 5 April 2020, 12pm, MOH has identified 17,345 close contacts who have been quarantined. Of these, 5,995 are currently quarantined, and 11,350 have completed their quarantine.
Enhanced measures for foreign worker dormitories
In light of the rising number of infected cases from dormitories where foreign workers are housed, The S11 Dormitory @ Punggol, with 13,000 resident workers, and Westlite Toh Guan dormitory, with 6,800 resident workers, have been gazetted as isolation areas.
MOH states that this is necessary to avoid the risk of further transmissions from any potentially infected workers to others in the dormitories, as well as into the community. Workers who are symptomatic have already been isolated.
Within the two dormitories, all the affected workers will not go to work. Access to recreational facilities will be regulated to reduce the inter-mixing of workers. Movement between blocks is prohibited. Workers have also been advised to cease social interactions with others who do not reside in the same room or floor.
MOM is also working with all dormitory operators, to implement similar measures within their premises with immediate effect.
Efforts are also underway in the larger dormitories to reduce the density of their resident workers, by transferring some among them to alternative accommodation during this period.
National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said to media that there are now two separate strategies for tackling the spread of local cases. One for dormitories and one for the wider community.
“Once the circuit breaker (measures) kicks in, all foreign workers, on top of (those in) isolation areas, will have to stay in dormitories and will not be able to come out, so there is no infection to the rest of the community,” he said.
