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SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported on 793 new preliminary cases of COVID-19 in Singapore as of Friday (May 15) at noon, with a total of 26,891.
Of these, the vast majority are foreign workers living in dormitories, the ministry said, while one case is a Singaporean or permanent resident.
He added that more details will be provided in his evening press release.
Dozens of groups linked to foreign worker dormitories have been identified so far, including Singapore’s largest group of more than 2,500 cases linked to S11 Dormitory @ Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge and Tuas View Dormitory.
All three are among the 25 bedrooms that have been released as isolation areas. Some 400,000 foreign workers live in dormitories here in Singapore.
Some 20,000 infected foreign workers are expected to be laid off in late May, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said at a press conference on Tuesday.
As of the press conference, 1,735 of these workers have recovered and have been fired.
More than 5,900 patients discharged in total
With a one-day maximum of 1,164 patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, a total of 5,973 cases here have fully recovered from the infection, the ministry said Thursday.
Most hospitalized cases are stable or improving, while 20 are critically ill in the intensive care unit.
In addition to 21 who died from COVID-19 complications, nine patients who tested positive for the virus died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack.
“Only the cases in which the attending physician or pathologist assigns the primary or underlying cause of death due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count,” the Ministry of Health said in statements. press releases, adding that the assessment method is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.
It also noted that 86 male foreign workers aged 25-59 died from heart disease in Singapore in 2018.
As of May 10, the minstry conducted 224,262 swab tests, of which 216,102 were performed on unique individuals.
This translates to around 39,300 swabs made by 1 million total population, and around 37,900 unique individuals rubbed by 1 million total population.
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