SINGAPORE – There are 513 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including two in the community, both of whom are work pass holders.

In addition, six of the new cases are imported and had been placed on Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its update on Saturday (July 25).

The majority of the new cases are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.

Overall, 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 seven a day in the past week, MOH noted.

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

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Singapore now stands at 49,888.

COMMUNITY CASES

Of the two community cases reported on Saturday, one was picked up as a result of proactive surveillance and screening and is currently unlined.

The other had already been placed on quarantine earlier as they had been identified as a contact of a previously confirmed case. 

Both are asymptomatic, and were detected through proactive testing of essential workers who live outside the dormitories, MOH said.

ONE NEW CLUSTER FOUND

Three of the newly confirmed cases are linked to one previous case to form a new cluster at a dormitory at 12 Defu Lane 7.

MOH said it continues to pick up cases amongst work permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises.

The inter-agency task force handling the pandemic response is on track to clear all the dormitories by the beginning of August, it added, with the exception of 17 standalone blocks in eight purpose-built dormitories, which serve as quarantine facilities for 28,000 workers still serving out their isolation period.

This last batch of workers come from dormitories with a relatively high prevalence of Covid-19, and will be subject to a final test before they complete their isolation periods, MOH said. 

"We therefore expect the daily case counts to be high for the coming two weeks, before tapering down thereafter."

IMPORTED CASES

Amongst the six imported cases, two are Permanent Residents who returned to Singapore from India on July 12, and from Britain on July 10. The remaining cases are Dependant’s Pass holders who arrived from India between July 11 and July 13.

All of them had been placed on a 14-day Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving their notice.

UPDATE ON CONFIRMED CASES

MOH said 180 more cases of Covid-19 have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 45,352 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

There are currently 148 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit.

Another 4,361 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.

So far, 27 have died from complications due to the infection.