The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wed (29 Apr) has confirmed an additional 690 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore as of 12 pm today.
Six 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 15,641.
There are no imported cases today.
As for community cases, MOH reports 11 new cases, 6 Singaporeans/Permanent Residents and 5 Work Passes.
There are 19 new cases of Work Permit holders who are residing outside dormitories and 660 cases of Work Permit holders residing in dormitories.
Of the new cases, 63% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.
Five new clusters identified by MOH:
- 11 Defu Lane 1.
- 106 International Road.
- 33 Senoko Way.
- 17 Shaw Road.
- 182 Woodlands Industrial Park E5.
62 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.
In all, 1,188 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.
There are currently 1,714 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 22 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
12,725 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.
14 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.
Professor Dale Fisher, a senior consultant at the Division of Infectious Diseases in National University Hospital (NUH), told CNA in an interview 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.”
MOH in its press statement on 27 April noted that Singapore is now able to conduct more than 8,000 tests per day from an average of 2,900 tests per day in early April.
