Singapore reports 518 new COVID-19 cases
The bulk of the new cases are foreign workers living in dormitories. KUA CHEE SIONG PHOTO via The Straits Times/Asia News Network)
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 518 new coronavirus cases in Singapore on Sunday (May 31), including three new cases in the community.
The community cases are Singaporeans and permanent residents.
The bulk of the remaining cases are foreign workers living in dormitories.
The new cases take Singapore’s total to 34,884.
The ministry will release more details later on Sunday.
On Saturday, MOH reported that 1,096 patients were discharged, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 20,727. This includes nine patients who tested positive for Covid-19, but who died of other causes, which MOH counts as having recovered.
It also added several supermarkets and food centers to a list of places visited by Covid-19 patients before they were tested positive.
The list of 15 locations comprises seven FairPrice supermarkets, two Don Don Donki outlets, a Giant supermarket, three markets and hawker centers, a food court and a Japanese food street.
One new cluster involving nine earlier cases was found at a dormitory at 15A Senoko Way.
The MOH said on Saturday that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from an average of seven cases a day in the week before to an average of four a day in the past week, while the number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two per day in the past two weeks.
Five of the 506 new cases confirmed on Saturday were community cases, including one Singaporean, one permanent resident and three work pass holders.
The ministry and Singapore Prison Service also disclosed on Saturday that three newly admitted inmates and a staff nurse working at the Changi Prison Complex have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past two months. Two of the three inmates have recovered and returned to the general prison population, while the third inmate remains isolated as an added precaution after being tested negative of the virus.
The staff nurse has also recovered and is back at work.
As of Saturday, 374 remain in hospital, including seven in intensive care, while a total of 13,242 are in community facilities.
Twenty-three people have died from Covid-19 complications in Singapore.
Globally, the outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 6.15 million people. Some 370,500 have died.
