Covid-19: 13 of 15 new community cases stay in same Veerasamy Road shophouse as earlier patient

SINGAPORE — Thirteen of the new Covid-19 cases in Singapore that were announced on Thursday (June 4) had stayed in a shophouse at Veerasamy Road, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

They were among the 15 cases in the community that were identified on the same day, part of the 517 new cases reported.

The total number of infections here now stands to 36,922. 

Of the 15 community cases, MOH said that two are permanent residents, six are work pass holders and the remaining seven are work permit holders.

All 15 are close contacts of earlier patients and had already been placed on quarantine.

“They are all asymptomatic, but we had swabbed them to confirm and verify their status during quarantine. Besides the polymerase chain reaction test, we also conducted serological tests to determine if these are current or past infections,” MOH said.

The 13 — including one of the permanent residents — had resided in a shophouse along Veerasamy Road in Little India, together with an earlier confirmed case.

Three of the 13 have positive serological test results, which is indicative of past infections. Eight came back negative and two results are pending, MOH said.

Of the other two community cases, one is a work pass holder who was a housemate of an earlier confirmed case residing along Bendemeer Road, and had been quarantined at a government quarantine facility since May 30. MOH said that the man’s serological test has come back positive, which shows a past infection.

The other community case is a permanent resident who is a household contact of previously confirmed cases and had been placed on quarantine since May 7.

“Epidemiological investigations are ongoing to determine if this is a past infection,” MOH said.

INCREASE IN COMMUNITY CASES

MOH said that the number of new cases in the community has increased: It was an average of six a day in the past week compared with an average of five a day in the week before that.

The number of cases in the community that have no known source of infection has remained stable at an average of two a day in the past two weeks.

Excluding the 15 community cases reported on Thursday, the rest of the 502 new infections were linked to foreign workers residing in dormitories.

One dormitory at 3 Buroh Lane near Jurong Port Road is no longer classified as a cluster since it has had no new infections in the past two incubation periods, or 28 days.

However, MOH has identified four new clusters of infections at a worksite in Kampong Bugis and dormitories at 212 Tagore Lane near Upper Thomson, 63 Tuas South Avenue 1 and 109 Ubi Avenue 4.

UPDATE ON THE REST OF THE CASES

MOH said that 23,904 people have fully recovered from Covid-19 and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 322 on Thursday.

There are still 303 patients in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and five are in critical condition under intensive care.

There are also 12,691 patients 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-four people have died from complications due to the respiratory disease.