Number of coronavirus cases hits three digits again

The number of Covid-19 cases here hit three digits again yesterday, after daily counts of 61 and 42 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced 102 new cases, taking Singapore's total to 55,497. Four of the five new cases in the community are unlinked, said MOH.

Of these, three were identified as a result of periodic screening of workers in essential services who do not live in dormitories.

The fourth patient was tested as part of the ministry's efforts to screen individuals working in front-line Covid-19 operations.

But further serological tests conducted on all four patients indicated these were past infections and they are no longer infectious.

The fifth patient in the community was identified as a contact of a previously-confirmed case. She had been on quarantine, and was tested during quarantine to determine her status, said MOH.

Meanwhile, Golden Village cinema in VivoCity was added to the list of places visited by patients while they were infectious.

Among six imported cases announced yesterday were two Singaporeans who returned separately from the Philippines on Aug 11 and the United Arab Emirates on Aug 1.

They were tested while under stay-home notices.

The remaining four imported cases are Filipino seamen who are special pass holders. They arrived in Singapore from India on Aug 8 and did not disembark.

The four subsequently reported symptoms and were swabbed while on the vessel, where they remained until their test results came back. They were then taken to a hospital.

There were 91 cases in foreign workers' dormitories yesterday. Ten clusters in dormitories were closed as they have been cleared by the inter-agency task force, which has completed the testing of all workers in the dormitories.

MOH said there are about 21,700 workers still on quarantine. They will be tested when their quarantine ends.

MOH expects the case counts to remain high in the coming days before tapering off.

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By the numbers

102

New cases

5 

New cases in community

6

Imported cases

55,497

Total cases

27

Deaths

216

Discharged yesterday

50,721

Total recovered

91

Total in hospital