The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (30 Apr) has confirmed an additional 528 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore as of 12 pm today.
Six of the new cases in the community are Singaporeans or permanent residents and another three are work pass holders.
31 new cases are Work Permit Holders living outside of dormitories and 488 new cases are Work Permit Holders living in dormitories.
The new confirmed cases bring the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Singapore to 16,169.
Twelve new clusters are identified by MOH:
- Three of the newly confirmed cases are linked to one previous case to form a new cluster at the Institute of Mental Health (10 Buangkok View).
- 12 of the earlier confirmed cases have now been linked to a new cluster at 9 Benoi Crescent.
- 12 of the earlier confirmed cases have now been linked to a new cluster at 24 Benoi Place.
- Three of the newly confirmed cases are linked to 20 previous cases to form a new cluster at 2 Fan Yoong Road.
- Eight of the newly confirmed cases are linked to 12 previous cases to form a new cluster at 10 Gul Drive.
- Five of the newly confirmed cases are linked to 12 previous cases to form a new cluster at 23 Kaki Bukit Road 6.
- One of the newly confirmed cases is linked to 13 previous cases to form a new cluster at 17 Soon Lee Road.
- One of the newly confirmed cases is linked to 16 previous cases to form a new cluster at JTC Space @ Tuas (16 Tuas Avenue 1).
- 20 of the earlier confirmed cases have now been linked to a new cluster at 1 Tuas Avenue 10.
- Five of the earlier confirmed cases have now been linked to a new cluster at 2 Tuas Avenue 10.
- 14 of the earlier confirmed cases have now been linked to a new cluster at 81 Tuas South Street 5.
- Three of the newly confirmed cases are linked to 11 previous cases to form a new cluster at 54/56 Tuas View Square.
Of the new cases, 85% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing. There are 18 unlinked cases from community and Work-Permit Holders living outside of dormitories. No breakdown is given for the Work-Permit Holders living inside of dormitories.
15th death from COVID-19 infection
Updates on confirmed cases
56 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 1,244 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.
There are currently 1,708 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.
13,202 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.
15 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.
Numbers are not coming down
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.
