322 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, including 11 in the community and 5 imported

There are 322 new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Monday noon (July 13), taking Singapore's total to 46,283.

They include 11 community cases, comprising two Singaporeans or permanent residents and nine work pass holders, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday.

The ministry said that the higher number of cases on Monday is mainly due to fewer tests being conducted by the Covid-19 testing laboratories over the public holiday and weekend on July 10 and 11, with the backlog of samples being cleared from Sunday.

"The number of cases reported for July 9 and before were not affected," MOH said.

There are also five imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore.

Migrant workers living in dormitories make up the vast majority of the other cases.

More details will be announced on Monday night.

On Sunday, a 67-year-old Singaporean man, who is a non-teaching staff member at hospitality school Shatec, was confirmed to have the coronavirus infection and was the only new case in the community as of Sunday noon.

The ministry said the man had been detected as a result of its expanded testing regimen. He had onset of symptoms on July 6 and was confirmed to have the infection on July 11. He had gone to work in between those dates.

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Besides the Singaporean man, MOH also announced one imported case involving a permanent resident who had returned to Singapore from India on July 6, and had been tested while serving a 14-day stay-home notice.

Migrant workers living in dormitories made up another 176 new cases.

Of the new cases announced on Sunday, 96 per cent were linked to known clusters, while the rest were pending contact tracing.

No new Covid-19 clusters were announced. Four dormitories have been cleared through aggressive testing of migrant workers, and the clusters have now been closed, said MOH.

The dormitories are at Mandai Lodge I (460 Mandai Road), 10 Kaki Bukit Road 1 #03-32, 3 Sungei Kadut Street 6, and 9 Defu South Street 1.

They now house only recovered individuals and those who have recently tested negative for Covid-19 infection.

Among the new places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious that MOH listed on Sunday were Rivervale Mall (11 Rivervale Crescent) and Jurong Point's Lenskart outlet (1 Jurong West Central 2).

The ministry provides the list, found on MOH's website, to get those who were at these places to monitor their health closely for two weeks from the date of their visit.

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MOH said that close contacts would already have been notified and that there was no need to avoid these places as they would have been cleaned if needed.

The average number of new cases in the community per day has increased to 16 in the past week, from 10 in the week before.

The average number of unlinked cases in the community per day has increased to eight in the past week, from five in the week before.

A total of 259 more patients were discharged, which brought the total number of recovered patients to 42,271.

As of Sunday, 182 confirmed cases were still in hospital with one of them in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Another 3,468 were isolated and cared for at community facilities, which are for those with mild symptoms or who are clinically well but still tested positive for Covid-19.

Twenty-six people have died from Covid-19 complications in Singapore, and 14 patients who tested positive for Covid-19 died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 13 million people. More than 571,000 people have died.

For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.