Covid-19: No new Singaporean/PR cases; pre-school staff the only community case on Thursday

[UPDATED, May 29, 12.06am]

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 373 new coronavirus cases in Singapore today (May 28).

Out of these, there is only one community case while the remaining cases come from Work Permit holders living in dormitories.

Of the one community case, there are no Singaporeans/Permanent Residents while one is a Work Permit holder.

The new community case is a 49-year-old female Work Permit holder working in a pre-school, who is asymptomatic and is confirmed to have the virus on May 26. MOH will conduct a serological test to determine if this was a past or current infection.

More than 39,000 preschool staff have so far been tested as part of the proactive screening. Of these, 13 staff had tested positive using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which is a sensitive test that could pick up minute fragments of the COVID-19 virus ribonucleic acid (RNA), said MOH.

To determine if these were past or current infections, MOH has done an epidemiological study of these cases. 11 of the 13 cases had their serological test come back positive, which is indicative of past infections and are unlikely to be infectious by the time they were tested. They are also no longer transmissible and infective to others. 

Two of the serological test results are currently pending, including today’s case.

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 six 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 has announced two new clusters, both are dormitories, one located at 15 Kaki Bukit Road 4, and another at 31 Kranji Crescent.

Of the 510 cases who are still in the hospital, most are stable and improving. Seven are in critical condition, while 14,422 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

MOH also announced that 1,018 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 18,294 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

This brings the total number of cases to 33,249, with 18,294 patients discharged and 23 deaths.

For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.

melissagoh@asiaone.com