5 new Covid-19 clusters, including one linked to Home’s Favourite bakery

SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday (July 28) reported five new Covid-19 clusters, including one that has been linked to Home’s Favourite, a bakery located at the Jurong Food Hub. The other four clusters were linked to different individuals.

In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation here, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that six cases have been linked to the Home’s Favourite cluster, adding that there is likely ongoing transmission there.

“To break the chain of transmission and enable deep cleaning of the premises, Home’s Favourite will be closed to all members of the public from July 29 to Aug 12. All staff will be placed in quarantine and will be tested during quarantine,” MOH said.

There are now 44 active clusters here, each having between three and 932 cases.

The number of patients infected by the coronavirus who are in serious condition and require oxygen to help them breathe has climbed for the third consecutive day to 23. This is up from 21 of such cases reported on Tuesday and 18 on Monday.

In addition, there are two patients who are in critical condition under intensive care.

“One among these 25 cases is fully vaccinated but requires oxygen supplementation as she has underlying medical conditions. Sixteen seniors above 60 years (old), of whom 15 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, have fallen very ill,” MOH said.

Of the 23 patients who require oxygen support, 15 are aged above 60, five are between the ages of 40 and 60, and the remaining three are aged between 19 and 39, data from MOH showed.

“Over the last 28 days, 31 local cases required oxygen supplementation, were admitted to intensive care units or died. Sixteen were unvaccinated, 13 were partially vaccinated and two were fully vaccinated,” the ministry said.

As of Wednesday, there are 567 Covid-19 patients who are warded in hospital.

MOH added that it is investigating cases of infection involving markets and food centres, which are likely seeded by fishmongers who visited Jurong Fishery Port.

It will extend free Covid-19 testing to those who have visited the Taman Jurong Market and Food Centre between July 13 and 27.

They may go to https://go.gov.sg/tj-testing for details on the testing operations.

LATEST COVID-19 CASES

Earlier on Wednesday, MOH said that Singapore recorded 130 new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19, 27 of which were traced to the cluster at Jurong Fishery Port and another two to karaoke television (KTV) lounges and clubs.

The total number of cases linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster is now 932 and the total from KTV lounges is 247.

Of the 130 locally transmitted cases, 48 have not been linked to previous infections.

For those linked to previous infections, 61 had already been placed under quarantine and another 21 were detected through surveillance testing, MOH said.

Among the cases are three seniors aged above 70 who are not vaccinated or partially vaccinated and at risk of serious illness.

The locally transmitted infections were among a total of 136 new cases confirmed on Wednesday.

The remaining six were imported and had been isolated on arrival in Singapore. Two were detected upon arrival and the remaining four developed the disease during stay-home notice or in isolation.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone up from 765 in the week before to 915 in the past week.

“We are likely to continue to see a high number of cases in the coming days as we step up efforts to detect them to contain their spread in the community,” MOH said.

The number of cases in the community with no known sources of infection has also jumped from 45 in the week before to 217 in the past week.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Singapore is now 64,589.

VACCINATIONS

More than 7.3 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been given to about 4.27 million people as of Tuesday, MOH said.

Some 3.16 million people have completed the full vaccination regimen, consisting of 121,014 recovered persons who received at least one dose and about 3.04 million who received their second dose.

In addition, 91,712 doses of Sinovac vaccines were administered as of Tuesday, covering 70,712 individuals.