SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (June 11) announced 422 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, bringing the total number of infections here to 39,387.

There were five cases in the community: A 78-year-old Singaporean man, two work pass holders and two work permit holders. The remaining 416 infections were linked to foreign workers living in dormitories.

Additionally, MOH said that one patient — identified as Case 39327 — died on Monday. He was diagnosed as being infected on Wednesday after his death.

The 44 year-old Indian national had developed chest and epigastric pain on May 28, and had sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic.

“He was found unconscious at his place of residence on June 8 and taken to Singapore General Hospital’s emergency department,” MOH said, adding that the man’s cause of death was ischaemic heart disease.

Of the five new cases in the community, MOH said that two had been picked up as a result of the ministry’s proactive surveillance and screening, while two others had already been placed on quarantine.

All four of the work pass and work permit holders were asymptomatic but had been detected due to proactive screening.

Among them, one was tested because he works as a security guard at a dormitory at Tampines Street 62 while another was swabbed as part of MOH’s efforts to screen workers in essential services.

“The other two cases are housemates of previously confirmed cases, and had already been quarantined earlier,” MOH said.

Investigations are ongoing for the Singaporean man to find out how he was infected.

Besides the polymerase chain reaction test, MOH said that it had also conducted serological tests to determine if some of the five cases are current or past infections.

“The serological test results of three cases have come back positive, which indicate likely past infections (while) results are pending for the rest.”

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from an average of six cases a day in the week before to an average of eight cases a day in the past week.

The number of cases in the community with no known links yet to past cases has also increased from an average of one case a day in the week before to an average of four cases a day in the past week.

“This is partly due to our active surveillance and screening of targeted groups, which have picked up more cases in the past week. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme,” MOH said.

Six new clusters of infections in foreign workers dormitories were also announced on Thursday. They are located at 15 Kaki Bukit Crescent, 9 Kian Teck Drive, 1A Pioneer Sector Walk, Potong Pasir Avenue 1, 214 Tagore Lane and 200A Tuas South Boulevard.

UPDATES ON REST OF THE CASES

In all, 27,286 people have fully recovered from the Covid-19 infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 754 on Thursday.

There are still 227 patients in hospitals. Of these, most are in stable condition or improving, and two are in critical condition under intensive care.

MOH said that 11,849 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-five people have died from complications due to Covid-19.