SINGAPORE - Two KTV lounges at Parklane Shopping Mall in Selegie will be closed from Friday (July 16) to July 30, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday night.
The lounges are Las Vegas KTV and Tuberose KTV at 35 Selegie Road, which is the address of the mall.
This to break any potential chain of transmission and enable deep cleaning, said MOH.
Free Covid-19 testing will also be extended to those who visited both outlets or similar KTV lounges and clubs operating as food and beverage outlets between June 29 and Thursday.
Those who interacted with social hostesses of any nationality in any setting in the same period should also get tested, which is free.
For more details on the testing operations, the public may visit this link.
In its statement, MOH also announced special testing operations for all staff of the ComfortDelGro Driving Centre in Ubi Avenue 4.
This comes after six cases were linked to the emerging cluster.
To break the chain of transmission and enable deep cleaning, the driving centre will also be closed to all members of the public from Thursday to July 29.
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Overall, MOH announced 42 new locally transmitted cases on Thursday, of which 34 belonged to the fast-growing KTV cluster.
The 34 cases make the KTV cluster the second-largest active cluster, at 88 cases, just two days after being declared.
The current largest active cluster remains the Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre cluster, at 94 cases.
Of the 42 locally transmitted cases, 17 have been linked to previous cases and quarantined, while 21 were linked and detected through surveillance.
Four cases are currently unlinked.
There were also six imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notice (SHN) or isolated on arrival in Singapore, said MOH.
Four were detected upon arrival in Singapore. The remaining two cases developed the illness during SHN or isolation.
In total, 48 new coronavirus cases were confirmed as at Thursday noon, taking Singapore's total to 62,852.
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The number of new cases in the community has increased to 127 in the past week from 23 the week before.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased to 16 in the past week from nine in the week before, MOH said.
There are currently 25 active Covid-19 clusters, with three to 94 infections each.
Of the 180 patients who currently remain in hospital, most are well and under observation.
One person is in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU) while seven require oxygen supplementation.
A total of 6,504,568 doses of Covid-19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme have been administered, covering 4,075,822 people, as at Wednesday.
A total of 2,480,287 individuals have completed the full vaccination process, comprising 51,541 recovered patients who received at least one dose and 2,428,746 who received their second dose.
Read the full MOH press release here.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
