The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 94 new cases of Covid-19 infection earlier today (Aug. 28).
This brings the total number of cases to 56,666.
Breakdown of new cases
Cases residing in dormitories: 80
80 of the new cases are Work Permit holders who are currently under quarantine.
Amongst the 80 cases residing in dormitories, 70 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission.
They were tested during quarantine to determine their status.
The remaining 10 cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as MOH's bi-weekly Rostered Routine Testing of workers living in dormitories and testing of those with ARI symptoms.
This allows MOH to pick up cases early, including asymptomatic ones, so that they are able to ring-fence them quickly to prevent further transmission, by aggressively containing, tracing and isolating the close contacts.
58 of the cases residing in dormitories today are from Sungei Tengah Lodge, who had all been placed on quarantine earlier.
The vast majority of them were tested during quarantine to determine their status, or picked up through Rostered Routine Testing.
Following the detection of cases at Sungei Tengah Lodge, which was reported as a new cluster on Aug. 22, MOH had placed about 4,500 workers on quarantine, and tested about 3,000 of them so far.
MOH said that it expects the number of cases from the dormitory to continue to be high in the coming days as it completes testing of the remaining quarantined workers.
Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, MOH has also conducted serological tests to determine if some of the cases residing in dormitories are current or past infections.
The serological test results for eight cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infections.
Imported cases: 10
Amongst the 10 imported cases, seven (Cases 56694, 56695, 56696, 56697, 56704, 56745 and 56750) are Singaporeans or Permanent Residents who returned to Singapore from India between Aug. 16 and Aug. 18.
Another two (Cases 56685 and 56690) are Dependant’s Pass and Long-Term Pass holders who arrived from India on Aug. 12 and Aug. 16.
All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay- Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving their SHN at dedicated facilities.
The remaining case (Case 56726) is a Short-Term Visit Pass holder who was allowed entry into Singapore as she has been seeking medical treatment here.
She was conveyed directly to the hospital upon arrival in Singapore.
Cases outside of dormitories: 4
There are four new cases outside of dormitories, all of whom are Singaporeans.
A 25-year-old Singaporean, Case 56740, is currently unlinked.
She was detected through 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.
Epidemiological investigations of the case are in progress.
In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the case have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases.
MOH will also conduct serological tests for her household contacts to determine if she could have been infected by them.
The other three community cases today are linked to previous cases.
Cases 56743, 56744 and 56746 had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases, and had been placed on quarantine earlier.
They were tested during quarantine to determine their status.
One of the cases is asymptomatic.
No 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 were no new locations reported today.
Here is the full list of locations, as of Aug. 28:
97 per cent of the new cases are linked to known clusters.
MOH has been monitoring existing clusters for any further transmission.
As there have been no more cases linked to Bukit Panjang Integrated Transport Hub (15 Petir Road) for the past two incubation periods, which is 28 days, the cluster has now been closed.
71 remain in hospitals
198 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 55,337 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
There are currently 71 confirmed cases who are still in the hospital, most of whom are stable or improving.
None is in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU).
1,231 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.
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Top photo via Facebook / Tan Tock Seng Hospital.