SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has chalked off 35 false positive cases from the count of total confirmed cases in Singapore. 

As of Monday (May 11), the updated tally now stands at 23,787, following another 486 new cases. 

The false positive cases were first flagged on Sunday, when MOH said it had discovered that 33 cases from a laboratory were falsely recorded as positives due to an apparatus calibration issue for one of its test kits.

Subsequent re-testing confirmed these to be negative cases. There were also two results that had been ambiguous, and were subsequently verified to be negative upon retesting.

There were no false negative results discovered. The affected laboratory has since stopped all tests and is working to resolve the calibration issue.

On Monday’s figure, MOH said the lower number of cases was partially due to fewer tests being processed at the laboratory as it is recalibrating its apparatus for one of the test kits.

Of the new cases, 481 were foreign workers residing in the dormitories and two were not living in these premises. The remaining cases comprised two who were Singaporean or a permanent resident, and one patient who is a Work Pass holder. There were no new imported cases.

MOH said: “We continue to pick up many more cases among work-permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises.” 

It noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of nine cases a day in the week before, to an average of eight a day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also gone down, from an average of five cases a day in the week before, to an average of three a day in the past week.

“We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme,” MOH said. 

UPDATE ON CONDITION OF CONFIRMED CASES 

MOH said that 504 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 3,225 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

The health ministry said there are currently 1,093 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 24 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

It added that 19,448 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. To date, 21 have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.