The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 81 new cases of Covid-19 infection today (Aug. 15).

This brings the total number of cases to 55,661.

New locations visited by infectious cases

MOH regularly updates a list of public places visited by confirmed cases for more than 30 minutes when they were still infectious.

There is one new location reported today: Jewel Music Box KTV at HomeTeamNS Khatib (2 Yishun Walk) on Aug. 1

Epidemiological investigations found that three cases (Cases 55169, 55469 and 55712) had visited Jewel Music Box KTV at HomeTeamNS Khatib on August 1 and 2. Amongst them, two had been at the KTV for long periods for work purposes.

Visitors were invited to preview the new, yet to be opened KTV premise on the two days, and most stayed for a short period of time. The KTV was not operational during the visits and there were no singing activities held.

Therefore the risk of infection for visitors is assessed to be low. However as a precautionary measure, MOH will be contacting all visitors to the KTV on these two days and facilitating COVID-19 testing for them. Those who are unwell when contacted will be conveyed to the hospital for further medical assessment.

MOH advises all visitors to the Jewel Music Box KTV at HomeTeamNS Khatib during the affected dates to monitor their health and seek medical attention promptly should they develop acute respiratory infection symptoms. They may call MOH at 1800-333-9999 if they have queries.

All the new cases are linked to known clusters.

The following dormitories have been cleared by the Inter-agency Taskforce, and now house only recovered individuals and those who have recently tested negative for Covid-19 infection. As such, the clusters have now been closed:

• 36 & 38 Kian Teck Drive
• 17 Shaw Road
• 52 Tech Park Crescent
• 8 Tuas South Lane

Breakdown of new cases

Cases residing in dormitories: 62

62 of the new cases are Work Permit holders who are currently under quarantine.

The Inter-agency Taskforce has completed the testing of all workers in the dormitories. There are currently about 20,700 workers who are still serving out their quarantine period.

These workers will be tested when their quarantine ends, and MOH said that it expects the case counts to remain high in the coming days, before tapering down thereafter.

Imported cases: 16

There are 16 new imported cases.

Three (Cases 55671, 55695 and 55696) are Dependant’s Pass holders who arrived from India on Jul. 31 and South Africa on Jul. 29.

Another three cases (Cases 55686, 55688 and 55690) are Work Pass or Work Permit holders who are currently employed in Singapore. They arrived from Bangladesh on Aug. 1 and the Philippines on Aug. 2.

All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and were serving their SHN at dedicated facilities. They had been tested while serving their SHN.

Another 10 cases are seamen who are Special Pass holders. They arrived in Singapore from India on Aug. 8 on a vessel, where they had not disembarked from. As they had been identified as close contacts of previous cases, they were swabbed while on the vessel even though five of them are asymptomatic.

They had remained on the vessel until their test results came back positive for Covid-19, and subsequently conveyed in ambulances to a hospital.

Cases outside of dormitories: 3

There are three new cases outside of dormitories. Two are Singaporeans or Permanent Residents, while one is a Work Pass Holder.

All three cases in the community are linked to previous cases. Two (Cases 55706 and 55731) had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases. They had been placed on quarantine earlier, and were tested during quarantine to determine their status.

Case 55731 is a technician who had boarded the affected vessel between Aug. 8 and Aug. 12 to carry out essential repair and maintenance work. He was subsequently placed on quarantine when some crew members were confirmed to have Covid-19, and swabbed even though he is asymptomatic.

Case 55712 was detected under MOH's enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI) at first presentation to a doctor.

83 remain in hospitals

472 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 51,521 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

There are currently 83 confirmed cases who are still in the hospital, most of whom are stable or improving.

None are in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU).

4,030 cases who have mild symptoms or who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

27 have passed away from complications due to Covid-19 infection.

Top photo via hometeamns.sg