The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Mon (27 Apr) has confirmed an additional 799 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore as of 12 pm today — Singapore’s highest daily toll to date.
14 of the new cases are Singaporeans or permanent residents, while the rest are Work Permit holders residing in migrant worker dormitories, according to MOH.
The new confirmed cases bring the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Singapore to 14,423.
There are no imported cases today.
As for community cases, MOH reports 18 new cases, 14 Singaporeans/Permanent Residents and 4 Work Passes.
There are 17 new cases of Work Permit holders who are residing outside dormitories and 764 cases of Work Permit holders residing in dormitories.
Of the new cases, 51% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.
Seven new clusters identified by MOH:
- Acacia Home (30 Admiralty Street).
- Hai Leck Engineering Pte Ltd (12 Tuas Drive 1).
- Lingjack Dormitory (1 Woodlands Terrace).
- 9 Gul Street 1.
- 3 Senoko Link.
- 44 Toh Guan Road East.
- 2 Woodlands Industrial Park E1.
35 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.
In all, 1,095 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.
There are currently 1,451 confirmed cases who are still in the hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 20 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 11,863 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.
These are those who have mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19.
MOH announced the death of Cases 1595 and 9682 due to complications of COVID-19 infection on 27 April 2020.
Case 1595 was an 82-year-old male Singapore Citizen who was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 8 April.
Case 9682 was an 81-year-old male Singapore Citizen, who was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 20 April.
The National Centre for Infectious Diseases has reached out to their families and is extending assistance to them.
The deaths bring the total number of COVID-19’s victim in Singapore to 14.
Professor Dale Fisher, a senior consultant at the Division of Infectious Diseases in National University Hospital (NUH), told CNA in an interview on last Friday that Singapore is still in the very early stages of sorting out the pandemic as efforts are ramping up.
“The numbers are not really coming down, it is a function of the test”, said Prof Fisher, who also chairs the Singapore National Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) committee.
“For the dormitories, the positivity rate is so high, you get to the point where you don’t need to test any more.
“But let’s just say if you have a clinical respiratory illness … Then you almost certainly have COVID. So we put those into isolation straight away,” he added.
As for whether the figures from the dormitories will be eventually included in the country’s tally, he said: “We should aim to have those clinical diagnoses eventually included in the numbers. I think that honesty is important. And that’s why it will be the case.”
“But there will be a lag because it is a different reporting mechanism,” said Prof Fisher. “Most we still want to test, but it does mean we can focus our efforts on those with less prevalence.”