SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 614 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday (May 22), bringing the country’s tally to 30,426. 

In a media statement, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that four of the new infections were cases in the community. All of them are Singaporeans.

Among them were two preschool staff: One is a 50-year-old woman who had not gone to work recently. The other, a 58-year-old woman, was diagnosed on Thursday, almost two weeks after she experienced symptoms on May 8. In between, she had gone to work at My First Skool @ Westgate.

The health ministry noted that the number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of five cases per day in a week before, to an average of seven per day in the past week.

“This is partly due to our active surveillance and screening of nursing home residents and pre-school staff, which have picked up more cases in the past week,” it said.

As of Thursday, the Early Childhood Development Agency said that three preschool staff have tested positive for Covid-19 while about 10,400 staff have tested negative.

MOH said on Friday that the number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two per day in the past two weeks.

“We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme,” said the ministry. 

Apart from the four community cases, the remaining 610 new infections were linked to foreign workers living in dormitories. 

MOH said it continues to pick up many cases among work permit holders residing in the dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises, as part of its process to verify and test the status of all workers.

There were no imported cases on Friday.

The ministry also said it has uncovered links for two previously unlinked cases in the past week.

Further epidemiological investigations and contract tracing have also uncovered links between previously announced and new cases, it added. 

In all, MOH said 12,955 patients have fully recovered from Covid-19 and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 838 people released on Friday.

There are currently 798 confirmed cases who are still in hospital.

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

MOH said that 16,650 patients are isolated and cared for at community care facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.

To date, 23 people have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.