The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed an additional 170 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore on July 11, 2020. This brings the total to 45,783 cases.
The vast majority of whom are Work Permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.
There are 24 cases in the community (7 Singaporeans, 6 Work Pass holders, 11 Work Permit holders).
From MOH's preliminary investigations, of these 24 cases, five were close contacts of earlier cases, and had already been placed on quarantine. Epidemiological investigations are ongoing for the other cases.
In addition, there is one imported case who had been placed on Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore.
246 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 42,026 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
There are currently 192 confirmed cases who are still in hospital.
Of these, most are stable or improving, and one is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
3,539 cases are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19. 26 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.
Of the 24 cases in the community, five had already been placed on quarantine earlier. 20 of the cases are asymptomatic, and were all detected through proactive testing.
15 of the community cases today are linked to previous cases or clusters. Of these, 5 (Cases 45702, 45771, 45779, 45781 and 45821) had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had been tested during their quarantine to determine their status.
Nine of the cases were swabbed as they work in essential services, and the remaining case (Case 45672) was tested as
part of efforts to screen individuals working in frontline COVID-19 operations.
Nine of the community cases are currently unlinked. All of them are asymptomatic, and were identified from periodic screening of workers in essential services who are living outside the dormitories.
Epidemiological investigations of the unlinked cases are in progress. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period.
MOH will also conduct serological tests for their household contacts to determine if these cases could have been infected by them.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of 9 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 19 per day in the past week.
In the past week (4 July to 10 July), MOH has uncovered links for five previously unlinked cases.
Here are the public places visited by affected individuals.
Those who had been identified as close contacts of confirmed cases would already have been notified by MOH.
As a precautionary measure, persons who had been at these locations during the specified timings should monitor their health closely for 14 days from their date of visit.
They should see a doctor promptly if they develop symptoms of acute respiratory infection (such as cough, sore throat and runny nose), as well as fever and loss of taste or smell, and inform the doctor of their exposure history.
There is no need to avoid places where confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been. The National Environment Agency will engage the management of affected premises to provide guidance on cleaning and disinfection.
Top photo via Facebook / Clean & Green Singapore