2 preschool staff among 642 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on May 23

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday (May 23) confirmed an additional 642 Covid-19 infections in Singapore, including two preschool staff who tested positive for the disease.

This brings the total number of cases here to 31,068.

In a media statement, MOH said the two preschool staff are a 54-year-old Singaporean woman and a 24-year-old Filipino woman. Both did not develop any symptoms previously and tested positive on Friday and had gone to work after taking swab tests.

The Singaporean woman —  case 31,055 —  had gone to work at Shaws Preschool @ Lorong Chuan while the Filipino, who is case 30,767, had worked at PCF Sparkletots @ Gambas.

Their positive test results were picked up as a result of proactive screening of preschool staff, said MOH. Including the pair, a total of seven preschool staff have tested positive for Covid-19, the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) said in a separate statement on Saturday night.

It added that about 15,300 preschool staff, or more than 99 per cent of those who have undergone testing so far, have tested negative.

MOH said that the two preschool staff were among 11 cases in the community announced on Saturday. These include five Singaporeans, one Permanent Resident, three Work Pass holders and two Work Permit holders.

The remaining 631 cases involve Work Permit holders residing in migrant worker dormitories and factory-converted dormitories.

There were no imported cases on Saturday.

"The number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of five cases per day in the week before, to an average of seven per day in the past week," said MOH.

"The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased, from an average of one case per day in the week before, to an average of two per day in the past week."

It added that this was partly due to Singapore's active surveillance and screening of nursing home residents and preschool staff, resulting in more cases being picked up in the past week.

"We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme," it added.

MOH also identified two news clusters at 28 Kian Teck Road and 121 Tuas View Walk 1. 

It said that 927 more Covid-19 patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.

In all, 13,882 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

There are currently 711 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and eight are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 16,452 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.

To date, 23 have passed away from complications due to Covid-19 infection.

On Friday, MOH had reported that two preschool staff were among the 614 new cases. ECDA had said on Thursday that three preschool staff had tested positive for Covid-19 while about 10,400 staff had tested negative.

ECDA announced last week that all 30,000 staff members would be required to take a one-time swab test ahead of the opening of preschools on June 2. The tests commenced on May 15 and are scheduled to complete by the end of the month.

In its statement on Saturday, ECDA said that for the positive cases that have been identified so far, it seeks the public’s understanding towards the preschools and their staff involved.

"As infections can be very mild or asymptomatic, the preschool staff may not be aware that they were unwell. The test thus is useful to identify asymptomatic and mild cases ahead of preschool reopening," it said.

"ECDA is monitoring the situation closely and will work with the management, staff, parents and children at the preschools to ensure the safety and well-being of all."