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SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 768 new cases of Covid-19 in Singapore as of Friday noon (May 8), bringing the total count to 21,707.
These include 10 Singapore residents and permanent residents, while migrant workers living in dormitories make up the majority of the remaining cases.
More details will be released later on Friday, the ministry added.
Singapore, which now has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia, has seen an increase in cases in recent weeks.
Although it took the Republic 13 weeks, or approximately three months, from the first case reported on January 23 to 10,000 cases crossing on April 22, it took only two weeks for the cases to reach 20,000 cases on Wednesday. The recent increase in cases is largely due to an increase in cases among dormitory workers, the health ministry said.
As of Thursday, 18,483 of 323,000 dorm workers, or 5.7 percent, have tested positive for Covid-19.
This occurs even when the number of cases among Singaporeans, PRs, and pass holders has dropped from a daily average of 14 two weeks ago to 10 in the past week.
Such unrelated cases have also dropped to an average of four per day in the past week from seven cases two weeks ago.
As of Thursday, 1,706 patients in Singapore fully recovered from the virus and were discharged.
Twenty have died of Covid-19 complications and six who tested positive have died of other causes.
Globally, the outbreak, which started in December last year, has infected more than 3.8 million people. Some 270,000 have died.
The United States remains the most affected country, with more than 1.25 million cases and 75,000 deaths from Covid-19 as of Friday.
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