Singapore reported 752 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Thursday (May 14), taking the country’s total to 26,098.
In its daily update, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that 1,164 more patients have been discharged, the first time the number of recovered patients has crossed the 1,000 mark.
In all, 5,973 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
More cases picked up
Among the new cases reported on Thursday, 750 patients are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.
MOH said it continues to pick up many more cases among work permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises.
There were no new imported cases or cases among work permit holders residing outside dormitories.
The number of new cases among work permit holders residing outside dormitories has decreased from an average of six cases per day in the week before to an average of three per day in the past week, said MOH.
MOH reported on Thursday two new cases in the community, the lowest since the “circuit breaker” started.
The first patient is a 76-year-old Singaporean man who is linked to a cluster at 63 Senoko Drive. This cluster now has 52 confirmed cases.
The other patient is a 43-year-old permanent resident, who is part of a cluster at TTJ Design & Engineering and is a contact of Cases 10923, 12471, 15097 and 21384. The cluster at 57 Pioneer Road currently has 45 confirmed infections.
“The number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of eight cases per day in the week before, to an average of five per day in the past week.
“The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of three cases per day in the week before, to an average of two per day in the past week,” the ministry reported.
MOH said 99 per cent of the new cases are linked to known clusters while the rest are pending contact tracing. Further details can be found in the ministry’s daily situation report.
New cluster
A new cluster was also identified at 2 Perumal Road after 11 earlier confirmed cases were linked.
No new cases were linked to Singapore’s largest COVID-19 cluster at S11 dormitory @ Punggol, which had 2,562 cases as of Wednesday.
There are currently 1,072 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving while 20 are in a critical condition in the intensive care unit.
A total of 19,032 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are people who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19.
To date, 21 have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection. No deaths were reported on Thursday.
Public should not be alarmed
Earlier in the day, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo urged the public not to be “overly alarmed” even as the number of COVID-19 cases in Singapore remained elevated.
Mrs Teo explained that the large number of reported cases among migrant workers reflected the current approach of “aggressive testing”.
“Few countries have tested their migrant populations extensively; far fewer have undertaken to test all their migrant workers, as Singapore has,” she said.
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