18 COVID-19 community cases in Singapore, including Sengkang General Hospital housekeeper

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 21 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases as of noon on Tuesday (May 25), comprising 18 in the community and three in foreign worker dormitories.

This is the highest number of dormitory cases since Oct 8 last year, when there were four cases.

Fifteen of the locally transmitted infections were linked to previous cases. Eight of them had been placed on quarantine earlier and seven were detected through surveillance. The remaining six had no links to previous cases, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

There were also nine imported infections, who had been placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. Three were returning Singaporeans or permanent citizens.

In all, Singapore reported 30 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.

SENGKANG GENERAL HOSPITAL WORKER AMONG UNLINKED CASES

A 27-year-old Malaysian man who works as a housekeeper at Sengkang General Hospital is among the six unlinked community cases. 

There is also a 29-year-old Malaysian man who works at Tiger Sugar Bubble Tea at Holland Piazza and a 15-year-old Singaporean who is a student at Westwood Secondary School.

The other unlinked cases include a 27-year-old Singaporean project manager at Fei Ying Trading Enterprise, a 74-year-old Singaporean retiree and a 50-year-old Singaporean who works as an engineer at Tektronix Southeast Asia. 

All the unlinked cases had experienced symptoms such as fever, sore throat and runny nose prior to testing positive for COVID-19.

JEM/WESTGATE CLUSTER GROWS

Two more cases have been added to the Jem/Westgate cluster, bringing the total number of infections to 53. 

Both new cases are family members of previous cases and had already been quarantined.

They are a 13-year-old Singaporean student at Kranji Secondary School and a seven-year-old Singaporean student at Rulang Primary School.

Both boys developed a fever on May 23 and reported their symptoms while in quarantine. 

DORMITORY AMONG 3 NEW CLUSTERS

Three new clusters have been identified. 

The first is at a dormitory, Harvest @ Woodlands. The dormitory cluster currently has a total of four cases. The first detected case there was a 46-year-old Malaysian man who works as a construction worker at H&W Communications. He tested positive on May 22.

The second cluster is linked to a previous case, a 40-year-old Singaporean who works as an employee in operations at The Meatery SG. He tested positive on May 21. This cluster has three cases.

The remaining cluster is linked to a 31-year-old Singaporean who works as a property agent with ERA Realty Network. The man tested positive for COVID-19 on May 23. There are five cases linked to this new cluster.

READ: 50 COVID-19 cases linked to Jem/Westgate cluster, free testing extended to those who visited from May 10-22

READ: Singapore approves storage of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at refrigerator temperatures

RESIDENTS IN PASIR RIS BLOCK TEST NEGATIVE

Singapore is in the second week of tighter community restrictions as part of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert), which will be in place through Jun 13.

MOH said in response to queries from CNA about the mandatory testing of residents at Block 559, Pasir Ris Street 51 that 304 residents and visitors have tested negative for COVID-19 as of Tuesday.

MOH and the Ministry of National Development (MND) said on Sunday that four COVID-19 cases were detected in two different households living in the block.

READ: COVID-19 breath test gets provisional authorisation in Singapore, to undergo trial at land checkpoint

READ: NEA 'encouraged' by takeaway orders at hawkers, reminds patrons to maintain safe distancing

As of Tuesday, Singapore has reported a total of 61,890 COVID-19 cases and 32 fatalities.

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