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SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 876 new cases of COVID-19 as of noon Sunday (May 10), bringing the country’s total to 23,336.
Another 425 cases have also been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, bringing the total number of recoveries to 2,721.
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Of the new cases, 860 are work permit holders residing in residences for foreign workers, the Ministry of Health (MS) said in its daily update. Another 11 cases are work permit holders residing outside the dormitories.
The number of cases among dormitory work permit holders continues to rise due to intensive testing, the ministry said.
“The number of new cases from tests of workers with symptoms of acute respiratory infection and their contacts remains stable,” said the Ministry of Health.
“But the number of daily cases continues to increase as we are also evaluating workers who are fine and asymptomatic as part of our process to verify and assess the status of each worker.”
“We started this intensive test in specially designed bedrooms, and now we are doing it for factory converted bedrooms.”
There were also four cases in the community. Two are Singaporean or permanent residents, while the other two are holders of work passes.
One of the patients, case 23146, is a 63-year-old Singaporean woman residing in the Acacia social welfare home. It was confirmed that he had COVID-19 on Saturday.
Case 22966 is a 49-year-old permanent resident who tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday through serological tests, the Health Ministry said.
He is linked to the Mustafa shopping center group, and is also a Case 741 contact, a nurse at Sengkang General Hospital.
According to previous reports from the Ministry of Health, the 42-year-old nurse reported the appearance of symptoms on March 24, and the results of subsequent tests confirmed the infection on March 27 in the afternoon.
“The number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 11 cases per day in the previous week to an average of nine per day in the last week,” said the health ministry.
“The number of unrelated cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of five cases per day in the past week to an average of four per day in the past week.”
Another imported case was also reported. The patient, a 61-year-old Singaporean man, had been alerted when he arrived in Singapore, the health ministry said.
Known as Case 22872, the man has a history of traveling to Qatar and had symptoms on May 7. She was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection two days later.
33 CASES WERE “FALSE POSITIVES”
The Health Ministry said Sunday it had recently found 33 previously confirmed cases from a laboratory that were false positives as a result of “device calibration problems for one of its test kits.”
They were later found to be negative after retesting at the National Public Health Laboratory.
“No false negative results were discovered from our review,” added the ministry. “The Ministry of Health has taken immediate measures to rectify the situation. The laboratory has stopped all tests and is working to resolve the calibration problem.
“In addition, there were two results that were equivocal and were later verified to be negative by retesting.”
FIVE NEW CLUSTERS FOUND
Five new groups were also identified on Sunday, after contact tracing and investigations uncovered links between previously announced and new cases.
The new groups are: 15 Serangoon North Avenue 1, Tanah Merah Coast Road, 9 Woodlands Industrial Park E1 and 515 Yishun Industrial Park A.
The cluster at 6 Battery Road has been closed as there have been no new linked cases in the past 28 days.
Of the 1,097 cases of COVID-19 still in the hospital, most are stable or improving, the Ministry of Health said. There are 22 critically ill cases in intensive care units.
The remaining 19,498 cases who are clinically well or experiencing mild symptoms are isolated and cared for in community care centers.
Singapore takes more than a month in its “circuit breaker” period to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, but is preparing for a gradual reduction of some measures.
Some companies, including hairdressers and home food companies, will be able to resume operations starting May 12, with a gradual resumption of selected activities and services within a few weeks.
READ: COVID-19: MOM establishes the requirements that companies must meet to resume operations in the workplace
On Saturday, the Ministry of Human Resources established the requirements that companies must meet to resume operations at workplaces.
They include implementing a system of safe management measures in the workplace, reducing physical interaction, and ensuring safe distancing in the workplace.
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