Covid-19: Only 1 community case among 451 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday

[UPDATE 10.20 PM]

A total of 451 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Singapore today (May 19).

In a statement by the Ministry of Health (MOH), they announced that of the new cases, only one is a community case while the remaining 450 cases come from Work Permit holders living in dormitories.

The community case is a 30-year-old Singaporean male, who is a household contact of Case 28271, a 58-year-old Singaporean female who went to work at Bishan MRT Station after she developed symptoms.

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

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 added that they have closed the clusters at NCS Hub (5 Ang Mo Kio Street 62) and CitiWall (34 Kaki Bukit Crescent) as there have been no more cases linked to them in the past 28 days.

However, there are two new clusters at 2 Sungei Kadut Street 4 and 13 Kaki Bukit Road 4.

Of the 1,004 cases who are still in the hospital, most are stable and improving. 10 are in critical condition, while 17,403 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

MOH also announced that 530 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 10,365 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

This brings the the total of cases to 28,794, with 10,365 patients discharged and 22 deaths.

For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.

bryanlim@asiaone.com