876 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, tally stands at 23,336

SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 876 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases here to 23,336.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press release on Sunday (May 10) that there are five new clusters: At 15 Serangoon North Avenue 1, Tanah Merah Coast Road, 9 Woodlands Industrial Park E1, 11 Woodlands Industrial Park E1 and 515 Yishun Industrial Park A.

Of the new cases, one is an imported case who had been placed on a stay-home notice upon arriving in Singapore. Four are community cases consisting of two Singaporeans and permanent residents, and two work pass holders.

According to MOH, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from an average of 11 cases per day in the week before, to an average of nine per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from an average of five cases per day in the week before, to an average of four per day in the past week.

Eleven of the new cases are work permit holders residing outside dormitories. MOH said the number of new cases amongst work permit holders residing outside dormitories has decreased from an average of nine cases per day in the week before, to an average of eight per day in the past week.

Work permit holders residing in dormitories accounted for 860 of the new cases reported.

"The number of new cases from the testing of workers with acute respiratory infection symptoms and their contacts remains stable," the ministry said.

"But the number of daily cases continues to rise as we are also testing the workers who are well and asymptomatic, as part of our process to verify and test the status of every worker."

MOH added that intensive testing had first started at purpose-built dormitories and is now being conducted at factory-converted dormitories as well.

Of the new cases, 98 per cent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

MOH added that in the past week, it was able to uncover links for 273 previously unlinked cases.

In addition, MOH said it recently found that 33 cases from a laboratory were falsely recorded as positives. This was due to an “apparatus calibration issue for one of its test kits” and subsequent re-testing confirmed these to be negative cases. There were no false negative results discovered. The affected laboratory has since stopped all tests and is working to resolve the calibration issue.

In addition, there were two results that had been ambiguous, and were subsequently verified to be negative upon re-testing.

As of Sunday, 425 more cases have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, bringing the total number of patients in Singapore who have fully recovered from Covid-19 and been discharged to 2,721.

A total of 1,097 cases are still in hospital, with 22 in critical condition and the rest stable or improving. About 19,500 cases have been isolated and are being cared for at community facilities, while 20 have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.