Covid-19: Pre-school staff among the 614 cases on Friday

[UPDATE 10.55 PM]

A total of 614 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Singapore today (May 22).

In a statement by the Ministry of Health (MOH), they announced that there are four community cases while the remaining cases come from Work Permit holders living in dormitories.

One of the new patients is a 58-year-old Singaporean female pre-school staff. She went to work at the Westgate branch of My First Skool after the onset of symptoms and was confirmed to have Covid-19 on May 21.

Another pre-school staff, a 50-year-old Singaporean female, was also diagnosed on May 21 but she had not gone to work recently. MOH did not identify where she works at.

The number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of five cases per day in the week before to an average of seven per day in the past week. This is partly due to the active surveillance and screening of nursing home residents and pre-school staff, which have picked up more cases in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two per day in the past two weeks.

MOH continues to pick up more cases among Work Permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises, as part of their process to verify and test the status of all workers.

99 per cent of the new cases are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

MOH announced new clusters at 564 A-E Balestier Road and 71 Kaki Bukit Industrial Terrace.

Of the 798 cases who are still in the hospital, most are stable and improving. 8 are in critical condition, while 16,650 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

MOH also announced that 838 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 12,955 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

This brings the total number of cases to 30,426, with 12,955 patients discharged and 23 deaths.

For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.

bryanlim@asiaone.com