632 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including 3rd infection at Singapore Expo community care facility

SINGAPORE — Singapore has confirmed 632 new cases of Covid-19, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a press release on Tuesday (May 5).

This brings the total number of cases here to 19,410.

MOH said nine new clusters of infections have emerged: These are located at 60 Benoi Road, 100A Central Boulevard, a construction site at Clementi N2C3, 1 North Coast Drive, 31 Sungei Kadut Loop, 9 Tech Park Crescent, 80 Tuas Avenue 1, 15 Tuas View Close and 131 Tuas View Square

Of the new cases, 12 were cases in the community. Eight of those infections were Singaporeans or permanent residents and 4 were work pass holders.

The Singaporeans infected included a 20-year-old man who had gone to work as a nurse at the community care facility at Singapore Expo. This is the third infection at the facility so far, after another nurse and a volunteer had tested positive earlier. In response to TODAY's queries, MOH said it is investigating whether there are links between the three cases.

MOH said the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 17 cases a day in the week before, to an average of 10 a day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also gone down, from an average of 10 cases a day in the week before, to an average of 5 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.

Apart from the dozen cases from the broader community, 15 were foreign workers residing outside the dormitories, and the remaining 605 infections were foreign workers living in the dormitories.’

“We continue to pick up many more cases amongst Work Permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises,” the health ministry said.

There were no imported cases on Tuesday.

PATIENT FROM THE PUBLIC HEALTHCARE SECTOR

The 20-year-old Singaporean nurse is the latest infection from the public healthcare sector, identified as Case 19,360.

He has no recent travel history to affected countries or regions. He was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection on May 5, and is currently warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

UPDATE ON THE REST OF THE CONFIRMED CASES

In all, MOH said that 1,519 have fully recovered from the Covid-19 infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 62 discharged on Tuesday.

There are currently 1,584 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are in stable condition or improving, and 24 patients are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

MOH said that 16,289 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.

Eighteen have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection, MOH said.

Separately, the health ministry said that Case 16370, a 44-year-old male Bangladeshi national, died on May 5.

He had been admitted to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital on April 29 and treated for a heart attack. He was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection on the same day. MOH said the cause of death was acute myocardial infarction.

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