SINGAPORE, July 22 — Two more markets will be closed for two weeks after 34 people were found to have Covid-19.
There were 22 people infected among those who have visited or worked at Clementi 448 Market and Food Centre and another 12 were detected at Whampoa Drive Market.
In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation yesterday (July 21), the Ministry of Health (MoH) said that the two places will be closed from July 22 to Aug 5.
This is to break the chain of transmission and enable deep cleaning of the premises.
There will be free Covid-19 testing for members of the public who had visited the Clementi 448 Market and Food Centre as well as the Haig Road Market and Food Centre between July 7 and 21 “to uncover any community infection cases”, MoH added.
Details of the testing operations can be found online.
MoH also said that it is working with the People’s Association to distribute antigen rapid test (ART) kits to people who had visited selected markets and food centres in the last 14 days.
The collection of the nasal swab self-test kits will run on Thursday and Friday at the residents’ committee centres in the vicinity of Whampoa Drive Market and at 726 West Coast Market.
In addition, MoH said that there were two new Covid-19 clusters: The Marina Bay Sands Casino as well as one linked to an individual, though no details were made known about the person.
Separately, investigations have found that there is likely ongoing transmission at one more nightclub: Sakura Entertainment located at 517 Geylang Road.
Earlier yesterday, the ministry reported that there were 179 new locally transmitted cases, 130 of which have been traced to the cluster at the Jurong Fishery Port and another eight to karaoke lounges and clubs.
The total number of cases linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster is now 454 and the total from KTV lounges is 215.
Thirty of the community cases have no known sources of infection.
For those linked to confirmed cases, 80 were already placed on quarantine and 69 were detected through surveillance testing.
The total daily count for yesterday was 181 after taking in two imported cases.
The two were placed on stay-home notices or isolated on arrival in Singapore. Both had developed the illness during their stay-home notice or in isolation.
Among the reported cases were four seniors aged above 70 who are not vaccinated and are at risk of serious illness.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has shot up from 88 in the week before to 766 in the past week.
The number of cases with no known links in the community has also gone up from 14 in the week before to 82 in the past week.
“The seven-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 97.7 and 11.7 respectively,” MoH said.
Singapore’s total cases of coronavirus infections is now 63,621.
Hospitalised patients
As of yesterday, there are 379 Covid-19 patients who are hospitalised.
Of these, seven require oxygen support and another one is in critical condition under intensive care.
“None among these eight cases are fully vaccinated. Two seniors above 60 years, one completely unvaccinated and one partially vaccinated, have fallen very ill,” MoH said.
It added: “There is continuing evidence that vaccination helps to prevent serious disease when one gets infected.
“Over the last 28 days, eight local cases required oxygen supplementation, were admitted to intensive care units or died. Six are unvaccinated, two are partially vaccinated and none are fully vaccinated.”
Vaccinations
About 6.84 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been given to more than 4.16 million people as of Tuesday, MoH said.
Some 2.79 million people have completed the full vaccination regimen, consisting of 120,152 recovered persons who received at least one dose and more than 2.67 million who received their second dose.
In addition, 70,504 doses of Sinovac vaccines have been administered as of Tuesday, covering 63,733 individuals. ― TODAY
