Number of coronavirus cases crosses 20,000 in Singapore with 788 new infections

Migrant workers living in dormitories form the majority of the confirmed cases. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 788 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore as of Wednesday noon (May 6), taking the total count in the country past 20,000.

Among the new cases are 11 Singaporeans and permanent residents, while migrant workers living in dormitories form the majority of the remaining cases.

More details will be released later on Wednesday, the ministry added.

With Wednesday’s cases, Singapore has now reported 20,198 coronavirus cases, the most in Southeast Asia.

From the first coronavirus case on Jan 23, Singapore took about 13 weeks to cross the 10,000 mark on April 22.

But this figure doubled in a much shorter time in the last two weeks to hit just over 20,000 on Wednesday.

MOH has said the recent spike in patient numbers is largely driven by the increase in cases in dormitories and active testing of workers staying there.

The ministry also reported recently that the average daily number of cases outside dormitories in the past week has generally been falling.

To date, 16,998 – or about 5.3 per cent – of the 323,000 migrant workers living in dormitories have tested positive for Covid-19 – comprising nearly nine in 10 of Singapore’s total.

Of the 632 new cases announced on Tuesday, 27 were cases outside dormitories. Eight were Singaporeans or permanent residents, four were work pass holders, and another 15 were migrant workers not living in dormitories.

Cases among Singaporeans, PRs and pass holders have dropped to an average of 10 a day in the past week from 17 two weeks ago.

The average daily number of such unlinked cases has also fallen to five from 10 in the same period.

As of Tuesday, 1,513 patients in Singapore have fully recovered from the virus and been discharged.

Eighteen have died from Covid-19 complications and six who tested positive have died from other causes.

Globally, the outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 3.6 million people. Some 257,000 patients have died.

The United States is the worst affected country in the world with more than 1.2 million cases and 71,000 deaths from Covid-19 as of Wednesday.