SINGAPORE, May 30 — Two new Covid-19 cases identified yesterday were linked to foreign workers who had been tested before they were due to start work on plumbing and electrical works in schools, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
They are among nine cases of Covid-19 identified in the community.
MOH said that the nine comprised two Singaporeans, one permanent resident, two work pass holders and four work permit holders.
Among the three Singapore residents, two are linked to foreign workers’ dormitory clusters and had been placed on quarantine earlier, while the link for the third has not been established yet.
― For the six work pass and work permit holders, five were picked up because of proactive screening and surveillance.
― Three were tested as part of a screening of migrant workers residing at shophouses located along Balestier Road, due to their proximity to another cluster in the same area.
― Two were tested before they had to do maintenance works in schools.
― The sixth person is a contact of earlier cases and was already quarantined.
Earlier, MOH confirmed 611 new cases for the day, bringing the total number of infections here to 33,860.
Overall, the ministry said that the number of new cases in the community has dropped, from an average of six cases a day in the week before, to an average of five a day in the past week.
It added that the number of cases in the community with no known sources of infection has remained stable at an average of two a day in the past two weeks.
“We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme,” MOH said.
The rest of the 602 cases identified yesterday are linked to migrant workers residing in dormitories.
MOH said that it continues to pick up many cases among work permit holders staying at dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing at these places, as part of its process to verify and test the status of all workers.
There were no imported cases yesterday, it added.
Two new clusters of infections were identified at two different dormitory sites in Kaki Bukit. They are at 35 Kaki Bukit Place and 40 Kaki Bukit Industrial Terrace.
MOH has been monitoring existing clusters for any further transmission.
“As there have been no more cases linked to Keppel Shipyard (51 Pioneer Sector 1) and 2 Tuas Avenue 1 for the past two incubation periods, the clusters have now been closed,” it said.
Testing of preschool workers
MOH said that one more serological test on a preschool employee came back positive on Friday.
“We have assessed that the individual was unlikely to be infectious by the time of the recent screening. The final serological test (Case 33092) has come back negative, which is indicative of a recent infection,” MOH said, adding that the patient is a non-teaching staff member and had been asymptomatic.
So far, more than 39,000 preschool staff members have been tested and only one case is likely to be a current infection.
Case from the public healthcare sector
One patient — identified as Case 33864 — is a 25-year-old Singaporean woman who works as a psychiatrist at Changi General Hospital (CGH) and is now warded there.
She has no recent travel history to affected countries or regions and was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Thursday.
Update on the rest of the cases
In all, 19,631 patients have fully recovered from Covid-19 and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including the 1,337 yesterday.
There are 461 patients still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and eight are in critical condition under intensive care.
MOH said that 13,745 patients are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.
Twenty-three people have died from complications due to Covid-19. ― TODAY
