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The Cochrane Lodge II bedroom in Singapore on April 18.
Photographer: Ore Huiying / Getty Images
Photographer: Ore Huiying / Getty Images
Singapore has reportedly found two more clusters of Covid-19 infections in previously cleared worker bedrooms, a day after three other worker dormitories that had previously been declared cleared were found to have clusters of viruses.
The city-state had 48 new cases Thursday, 41 of them in dormitories, according to the Ministry of Health. New groups have sprung up at Cochrane Lodge II on Admiralty Road West and Westlite Toh Guan dorm on Toh Guan Road East, according to Channel News Asia. Cochrane Lodge II had seen more than 450 cases of the virus before it was declared eliminated in June. CNA said, while Westlite Toh Guan had more than 1,200 linked cases before it was declared erased last month.
Dormitories that house the low-paid foreign workers who support Singapore’s construction and service sectors have made up the vast majority of cases in the Southeast Asian country. An explosion of infections caused Singapore to shift to a more restrictive approach to the virus, imposing a shutdown in April that closed restaurants and offices and prompted a rethinking of its testing strategy.
Economies and Covid-19 are inversely correlated. The fewer viruses there are, the more economies can be fully reopened. That’s particularly serious in trade-dependent places like Singapore.
So while the resurgence of clusters in dormitories reflects the difficulties Singapore and other nations are having in eradicating the virus, it raises questions about how soon the island’s city-state will fully normalize and reopen the economy amidst a crisis. ongoing recession. Singapore’s government has pledged more than S $ 100 billion in aid to the economy, although Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned this week that the country I cannot support such measures forever.
Currently, infections in the general community are fewer than few, prompting Singapore to relax some measures and reopen some travel borders with countries that have the virus situation under control. Of the remaining seven cases of the 48 reported Thursday, five were imported cases and two were in the community.
Additionally, 137 people were discharged, bringing the total to 56,028 who have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
