Covid-19: 51 new cases in Singapore, including 1 in community and 3 imported

SINGAPORE - There were 51 new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Saturday noon (Aug 29), taking Singapore's total to 56,717.

They included one community case, who is a work pass holder, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

There were also three imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore.

More details on Saturday's new Covid-19 cases will be announced later in the night.

On Friday, the Health Ministry announced 94 new Covid-19 cases, including four community cases who were all Singaporeans.

Only one of the community cases was unlinked — a 25-year-old woman who started showing symptoms on Aug 22.

She was confirmed to have the coronavirus on Thursday.

There were also 10 imported cases among the new patients, comprising three Singaporeans, four permanent residents, one dependant's pass holder, one long-term visit pass holder and one short-term visit pass holder.

Among the imported cases was an 88-year-old Singaporean man and a six-year-old girl who is a dependant's pass holder.

Both had returned from India, and they were confirmed positive on Thursday.

Among the 80 cases residing in dormitories, 58 are from Sungei Tengah Lodge and had been quarantined earlier.

MOH said most of them were tested during quarantine to determine their status, or were picked up through rostered routine testing.

A coronavirus cluster at Sungei Tengah Lodge was announced on Aug 22.

After the cluster was detected, MOH quarantined about 4,500 workers and has tested about 3,000 of them so far.

The ministry added that it expects the number of cases from the dormitory to continue to be high in the coming days until testing of the remaining quarantined workers is completed.

The average number of new daily cases in the community in a week has remained stable, at an average of two cases per day in the past two weeks.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable, at an average of one case per day over the same period.

Singapore has had 27 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 24.8 million people. More than 840,633 people have died.

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