Covid-19 cases in dormitories likely to increase because of 'more aggressive testing': Lawrence Wong

In the meantime, increase in community cases have shown moderation because of Circuit Breaker measures, said Wong.

Guan Zhen Tan | April 13, 2020, 12:03 PM

In a Facebook post on Apr. 13, co-chair of the Multi-Ministry TaskForce for Covid-19 Lawrence Wong gave an update on the Covid-19 situation in Singapore.

Wong shared three charts detailing the three types of infected cases in Singapore:

  1. Imported cases
  2. Community cases
  3. Work permit and dormitory cases

The charts document the number of cases in each category up to Apr. 11.

Wong mentioned that the number of community cases increased with the wave of imported cases, but the numbers have seen "some moderation in recent days".

Wong attributes this to the safe distancing measures that have been put in place.

However, he noted that the number of cases related to work permit holders and dormitories have increased sharply, and will likely continue to do so as Singapore undertakes "more aggressive testing" of workers staying in the dormitories.

He reiterated that Singapore has a "comprehensive strategy" to take care of foreign workers in the dormitories, and assured the public that the government is "going all out to tackle this" though it will take some time for the effects of the circuit-breaker measures to show.

"We will only see the full effects of the circuit breaker in the next one to two weeks. So let's press on with our efforts to stay home, minimise contact with others, and break the transmission chain in our community," Wong wrote.

233 new cases on Apr. 12

On Apr. 12, MOH reported an additional 233 Covid-19 cases in Singapore.

51 are linked to known clusters, while 15 are linked to other cases.

167 cases are pending contact tracing. Of these 167 cases, 16 are Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents while 10 are Work Pass or Long Term Pass holders residing in our community.

141 are Work Permit holders residing in dormitories, work sites and other living quarters.

You can see Wong's full post here:

Top image via the Ministry of Health and Lawrence Wong's Facebook post