SINGAPORE - Two more nursing homes joined the list of new clusters, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Wednesday (Sept 15).
The clusters at Orange Valley Nursing Home in Simei and Jamiyah Nursing Home both have 13 cases each.
All 13 cases at Orange Valley are residents, while at the Jamiyah home in West Coast Drive, the cases include 10 residents and three staff.
All in, there were 770 new cases in the community on Wednesday - a new high in over a year.
There were also 34 cases among dormitory residents and three imported ones, bringing the total tally in Singapore to 807 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.
This is more than double last Wednesday's total of 349 cases.
The total number of infections in Singapore now stands at 73,938, with 58 deaths.
Of the local cases on Wednesday, 238 are seniors above 60 years old.
There was one new case added to the cluster at All Saints Home in Jurong East, taking its total to 12 cases.
Ren Ci Nursing Home also had three new cases, with the cluster now totalling 32.
All in-person visits to residential care homes have been suspended for a month since Monday, after MOH detected 42 cases across 18 aged care facilities and providers.
The ministry had said last Sunday that the stoppage of visitations will continue to Oct 11 in order to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in aged care facilities, and to buy time to encourage more unvaccinated seniors to get their shots.
This window of time is also being used to roll out the vaccine booster programme for residents of aged care facilities, which will see these seniors get their third Covid-19 vaccine shot.
On Wednesday, 11 more cases were added to the Chinatown Complex cluster, bringing the total there to 197 cases. The complex has been closed to the public since Sunday (Sept 12).
There are currently 822 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, up from 809 the day before.
There were also 76 cases in need of oxygen supplementation and nine in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Of those who have fallen very ill, 66 are seniors above 60.
The clusters linked to staff at five bus interchanges in Toa Payoh, Tampines, Boon Lay, Bishan and Clementi had 16 new cases.
The total number of cases at these interchanges is 657.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
