SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Saturday (April 18) another 942 cases of Covid-19 infections, with 893 of these from foreign worker dormitories.

The other 49 new cases comprise 22 in the broader community and 27 involving work permit holders living outside dormitories.

This brings the total tally of Covid-19 cases here to 5,992 and the total number of cases in dormitories to 4,162. 

“The main increase today continues to be for Work Permit holders residing in dormitories, in line with our continued efforts to actively test and isolate the infected workers,” said MOH in a statement on Saturday night.

“Most of these cases are young, have a mild illness and are being monitored in the community isolation facilities or general ward of our hospitals. None of them is in the intensive care unit.”

MOH noted that the number of new cases amongst foreign workers residing outside dormitories has increased, from an average of 11 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 21 per day in the past week.

The number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 40 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 31 per day in the past week.

However, the number of unlinked cases in the community has increased slightly, from an average of 19 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 22 per day in the past week.

“We will continue to monitor the numbers carefully as the circuit breaker period continues. The contact tracing and epidemiology teams are working to identify the source of infection for the unlinked cases, but this will become increasingly difficult as time passes,” it said.

“Our surveillance programme is also ongoing, where a small sample of patients at our primary care facilities are tested for Covid-19 infection. The cases picked up through this surveillance is an indication of the presence of undetected cases in the community.”

MOH said that Case 4754, a 40 year-old male Malaysian national, died on Saturday. He was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection the previous day. “The cause of death was acute myocardial infarction with cardiogenic shock, and was not due to complications from Covid-19 infection,” the ministry added.

On Saturday, 38 more cases have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 740 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.

Of the 2,563 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving, MOH said. It added that 23 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, while 2,678 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. To date, 11 have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.

Writing on Facebook earlier on Saturday before MOH's announcement, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Covid-19 infections in foreign workers’ dormitories can be expected to grow for a while more and it will take some time for circuit-breaker measures to show results.

“We are working to break the chain of transmission in the dorms, to reduce the number of new cases,” Mr Lee wrote, sharing a TODAY article on experts’ stock-take of the measures on Day 11, when it was hoped that positive effects would show.

Outside of the dormitories, there are “a few early signs” that the circuit breaker is bringing cases down in the broader community, he wrote on Day 12 of enhanced measures which entailed the closures of non-essential workplaces and schools. 

“The next few days will be critical. All of us must do our part, in order to defeat Covid-19.”