257 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including 4 community cases

SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 257 new cases of Covid-19, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a press release on Thursday (June 18).

There were four cases in the community, MOH said. The remaining 253 infections were linked to the foreign workers living in the dormitories.

Of the four community cases, one is a permanent resident and the remaining three are work permit holders.

MOH said that the three work permit holders had already been placed on quarantine earlier as they had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases and were already quarantined at government quarantine facilities.

“They were swabbed during quarantine to verify their status, even though two of them are asymptomatic,” MOH said.

The permanent resident, MOH said, was detected due to the ministry’s proactive screening of workers in essential services even though he is asymptomatic.

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

The serological test results for three cases have come back positive, which indicate likely past infections, while the test result for the remaining case is pending, MOH said.

Overall, the health ministry said that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from an average of eight cases a day in the week before to seven a day in the past week.

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

Separately, the health ministry said that it had been monitoring the existing clusters of infections for any further transmission.

The cluster at the Orange Valley Nursing Home has since been closed as there are no more new cases linked there.

MUSTAFA CENTRE VISITED BY PATIENTS WHILE INFECTIOUS

MOH on Thursday added Mustafa Centre to a list of public places that had been visited by Covid-19 cases during their infectious period.

The ministry said that the infectious patients had visited the mall on June 10 between 8.50pm and 9.45pm.

Mustafa Centre has also been visited by patients while they were infectious on June 4, 7 and 9.

The ministry said that it had already notified individuals who had been identified as close contacts of the confirmed cases.

"As a precautionary measure, persons who had been at these locations during the specified timings should monitor their health closely for 14 days from their date of visit," the ministry said.

UPDATES ON THE REST OF THE CASES

In all, MOH said that 32,712 patients have fully recovered from the Covid-19 infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 774 on Thursday.

There are currently 225 patients who are still in hospital.

Of these, most are stable or improving, and two are in critical condition under intensive care.

MOH said that 8,510 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-six people have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.