No Singaporeans among 257 new COVID-19 infections; 1 PR among 4 community cases
Staff Writer, Singapore
Editorial Team
Yahoo News Singapore18 June 2020
A man sits at a seating area taped off for safe distancing measure on 18 June, 2020 in Singapore. (PHOTO: Getty Images)More
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) preliminarily reported 257 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Thursday (18 June) noon, bringing the total to 41,473.
“Based on our investigations so far, there are four cases in the community, of whom one is a Singapore permanent resident and three are work pass holders.” said the MOH, adding that the vast majority are foreign workers living in dormitories.
The ministry said that more details will be provided in its press release issued at night.
Dozens of clusters linked to foreign worker dorms have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of over 2,700 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge with over 2,000 cases, Jurong Penjuru Dormitory with over 1,700 cases, Cassia @ Penjuru and Tuas View Dormitory with over 1,400 cases each.
These dorms, the top five clusters with the highest number of cases here, account for some 24 per cent of the total infected workers living in dorms. Some 400,000 such workers live in dorms here.
To date, 132 dorms and 14 blocks of recovered workers in purpose-built dorms have been cleared of COVID-19.
The story will be updated later at night.
Some 32,000 have recovered
With 775 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Wednesday, 31,938 cases – some 77 per cent of the total tally – have fully recovered from the infection.
Most of the 257 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while two are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
A total of 8,995 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.
Apart from 26 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 10 others who tested positive for the virus have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another three, including the 44-year-old male Indian national who died on Monday, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.
“Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count,” said the MOH in previous press releases, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.
As of 15 June, the ministry has conducted 576,189 swab tests, of which 340,894 were done on unique individuals. This translates to around 101,100 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and about 59,800 unique individuals swabbed per 1 million total population.
Singapore will enter Phase 2 of its reopening – with various safe distancing measures still in place – on Friday. This phase is expected to last up to six months or longer, according to authorities.
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