Coronavirus: New community cases excluding healthcare workers down to 2

[UPDATED, 10.22pm]

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has reported 573 new coronavirus cases in Singapore today (May 4). 

Of these, fives cases are Singaporeans/PRs, with 560 cases being Work Permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories, said MOH. Eight cases involve cases of Work Permit holders residing outside dormitories.

The total count of coronaviruses cases in Singapore now stands at 18,778. 

In its statement, MOH confirmed that there have been no imported cases today.

Of the new cases, 89 per cent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

The number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 20 cases per day in the week before, to an average of nine per day in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of 12 cases per day in the week before, to an average of four per day in the past week.

3 new cases from public healthcare sector

There have been three cases from the public healthcare sector, involving an employee at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), a doctor at Changi General Hospital and a healthcare volunteer at the community care facility at Singapore Expo. All three are Singaporeans.

The 33-year-old NCID facilities manager and 32-year-old doctor were confirmed to have the Covid-19 infection on May 3. They are currently warded at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and CGH respectively.

The 52-year-old healthcare volunteer at the Singapore Expo community care facility was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection on May 4 and is currently warded at NCID.

3 new clusters; 2 closed

13 of the earlier confirmed cases have now been linked to form a new cluster at Hai Leck Engineering Pte Ltd (9 Tuas Avenue).

Two of the newly confirmed cases are linked to 41 previous cases to form a new cluster at the Melody Springs construction site (477A Yishun Street 44).

Six of the newly confirmed cases are linked to five previous cases to form a new cluster at 6 Tuas Basin Link.

As there have been no more cases linked to Little Gems Preschool at 3 Ang Mo Kio Street 62) and the dormitory at 55 Sungei Kadut Loop for the past 28 days, the clusters have now been closed.

49 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 1,457 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.

Of the 1,491 cases who are still in hospital, most are in stable condition or improving. 25 are in critical condition, while 15,812 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. 

The coronavirus death toll in Singapore currently stands at 18; another five more with the infection had died from causes not related to the virus.

For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.

candicecai@asiaone.com