On Mar. 27, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced 49 new cases of Covid-19.

Of the 49 cases, 22 are imported, while 27 are local cases.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases in Singapore to 732.

11 cases were discharged, taking the total number of discharged cases to 183.

There remain 17 cases in the intensive care unit, however.

New SingPost cluster

A new cluster has emerged at a SingPost Centre located at 10 Eunos Rd 8.

MOH has confirmed three cases there.

These are Cases 581, 689 and 724. All three of these cases are local with known links.

Case 581 is a previous case, confirmed on Mar. 24. He is a 47-year-old male Singapore Permanent Resident, and is currently warded at the Singapore General Hospital.

Case 689 is a 76-year-old female Singapore citizen who had recent travel history to Malaysia. She is currently warded at Changi General Hospital.

Case 724 is a 29-year-old male Malaysian, who is a Singapore Work Pass Holder. He is currently warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

SingPost statement

In a statement released on the same day, Mar. 27, SingPost confirmed that two of the confirmed cases are full-time employees who are not postmen, and do not have contact with members of the public in their line of work.

The other confirmed case is a contract staff working at SingPost Centre's packet-processing facility.

As a precautionary measure, all packet-processing operations at the affected centre were suspended on Mar. 26 and Mar. 27 for thorough cleaning and disinfection.

Contact tracing is being performed, and SingPost emphasised that so far, there is no known risk of contracting the virus through physical items. You can see the full statement below:

"A contract staff working at SingPost Centre's packet-processing facility was confirmed to have Covid-19 on 25 Mar 2020. This contract staff was last at the facility on 19 Mar 2020. Subsequently, another two full-time SingPost employees working on the same floor were also tested positive for Covid-19 on 27 Mar 2020. This is despite SingPost’s strict heath-screening and social distancing protocol for all contractors and staff members.

The two full-time SingPost employees are not postmen and do not have contact with members of the public in their line of work.

As a precautionary measure, SingPost has suspended all packet processing operations at SingPost Centre on 26 and 27 March for thorough cleaning and disinfection, as well as facilitate further contact tracing by the relevant authorities.

All employees working on the same floor as the confirmed cases have also been instructed to stay home until further notice, while contact tracing efforts are underway.

The confirmed cases were working at SingPost’s restricted packet-sorting area. As a result, members of the public should note that delivery of packages may be slightly delayed as cleaning and disinfection are underway. Operations is expected to resume on Monday, 30 March. Letter mail delivery is not affected through this time.

Even as SingPost renders support to its affected team members, we remain fully committed to our delivery obligations to the Nation.

We seek the kind understanding of the public during this difficult time.

SingPost will also like to stress that there is no known risk of contracting the virus through physical items so far."

New cluster

This information comes on the heels of the announcement of several other newly-reported clusters.

These include a cluster at PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Fengshan Blk 126, which now has 25 confirmed cases involving 16 staff and nine family members of Case 601.

Another recent cluster is at Dover Court International School, with seven confirmed cases -- six are staff at the school, and Case 729 is a contact of Case 618.

Top image via SingPost