242 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore; testing for all migrant workers in dorms completed

SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 242 new cases of Covid-19, including six that are imported and one in the community. The remaining 235 are migrant workers staying in dormitories.

In a press release on Friday (Aug 7), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that all six imported cases arrived from India between July 25 and 27.

One is a Singaporean, one is a permanent resident, two are work pass holders, one is a dependant’s pass holder and one is a long-term visit pass holder.

A dependant's pass allows the spouses and children of employment pass or S-pass holders to live with them in Singapore.

They had all been placed on a 14-day stay-home notice at dedicated facilities and tested positive while serving their notices.

There is one case in the community, which has no links to past cases.

MOH said that this case was detected during its enhanced community testing on individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection when first presented to the doctor.

“In the meantime, all the identified close contacts have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases,” it added.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone down from an average of three a day in the week before, to an average of two a day in the past week.

The number of cases in the community with no known sources of infection has remained stable at an average of one case a day in the past 14 days.

FOREIGN WORKERS’ DORMITORIES

MOH said that testing for all migrant workers in dormitories has been completed, except for a few standalone blocks in the dormitories that serve as quarantine facilities.

“The workers in these quarantine facilities will be tested when their isolation ends, and we expect the case counts to remain high in the coming days, before tapering thereafter.” 

Of the new cases announced on Friday, 99 per cent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

UPDATES ON THE REMAINING CASES

In all, the total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 54,797.

Of these, 48,312 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 281 on Thursday.

There are still 124 patients in hospitals and most are in stable condition or improving. No one is in critical condition under intensive care.

Another 6,334 patients 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.

Twenty-seven people have died from complications due to Covid-19.