1,426 new coronavirus cases in Singapore in new daily high

The majority of the Covid-19 cases here are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 1,426 new cases of Covid-19 infection in Singapore as of Monday noon (April 20), the single highest daily spike in numbers since the outbreak began in January.

Among these, 16 are Singaporeans and permanent residents, while the majority continue to be foreign workers living in dormitories.

MOH said it is still working through the details of the cases and will provide further updates on Monday night.

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 8,014.

To date, more than 1 per cent of the 323,000 foreign workers living in dormitories have tested positive for the virus.

Some 26 of the 43 large purpose-built dormitories, as well as several smaller factory converted dormitories, have reported active clusters.

Singapore’s largest active cluster remains S11 Dormitory@ Punggol, which has confirmed more than 1,500 cases.

The number of new cases in the community has fallen to 31 per day in the past week, down from an average of 37 cases a day in the week before. But there are slightly more unlinked cases in the community at an average of 22 per day in the past week, up from 18 cases per day in the week before.

Singapore now has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in South-east Asia, overtaking Indonesia and the Philippines.

Since January, 768 patients have fully recovered and been discharged. Eleven have died.