Record high 447 new infections here, four new clusters identified

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New infections include 409 foreign workers, most of whom live in dormitories

Apr 16, 2020 06:00 am

The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a record high 447 new Covid-19 infections here yesterday, over 90 per cent of which were foreign workers.

Of the 409 new foreign workers infected, 404 were living in dormitories here, while five had resided outside such facilities.

Among the new cases, 68 per cent were linked to existing clusters while the remaining were unlinked, and contact tracing is underway.

Four new clusters were also identified yesterday.

The incidence rate for infections involving foreign workers and dormitory clusters continue to be a source of concern, with foreign worker infections hitting an average of 260 cases per day this past week, up from an average of 48 cases per day the week before.

MOH attributed this to ongoing efforts to conduct more active testing of workers here, most of whom live in dormitories.

The WHO is currently in the process of conducting an analysis of excess deaths during the pandemic.

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There were 38 new local cases yesterday as the total number of infections reached 3,699. It was the sixth day in a row where there were no imported cases.

One of the new clusters is a foreign worker dormitory at 10 Kian Teck Crescent, with four earlier cases linked to it.

Another new cluster emerged at a dormitory at 26 Kian Teck Avenue after one of yesterday's cases was linked to three previous ones.

According to the website of the operator, Averic Capital Management, the dormitory can house over 5,000 workers.

A third new dormitory cluster is Mandai Lodge, now with seven infections. A new case was linked to six earlier ones linked to the dormitory, run by property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.

The fourth cluster identified yesterday is at 234 Balestier Road, which has been linked to seven earlier cases.

All but one of the cases from the cluster are Bangladeshi and Indian work pass holders. The latest infection, Case 3,142, is a 27-year-old Thai man who is here on a work pass.

Previously identified clusters also had new cases, with most of the existing dormitory clusters seeing new infections.

The S11 Dormitory @ Punggol at 2 Seletar North Link now has 797 cases in total after an additional 74 new ones were linked to it yesterday.

MOH also reported yesterday that an 80-year-old Malaysian man had died on Tuesday and tested positive for the virus after his death. The Health Ministry said the man did not die because of the virus.

There were 41 people discharged yesterday, making it a total of 652 who have recovered.

Of the 1,496 cases still in hospital, 26 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.