994 More Cases Discharged, 548 New Cases of COVID-19 Infection Confirmed

          As of 24 May 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed and verified an additional 548 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. The breakdown is as follows:

a)            Imported cases: 0

There are no imported cases today.

b)            Cases in the community: 4 (3 Singaporeans/Permanent Residents, 1 Work Permit holder)

The number of new cases in the community has increased, from an average of 5 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 6 per day in the past week. This is partly due to our active surveillance and screening of nursing home residents and pre-school staff, which have picked up more cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of 2 per day in the past two weeks. We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme.

c)            Cases residing in dormitories: 544

We continue to pick up many cases amongst Work Permit holders residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, because of extensive testing in these premises, as part of our process to verify and test the status of all workers.

2.            Details of these trends can be found in MOH’s daily situation Report (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/situation-report). Please refer to Annex A for the summary of the confirmed cases.

3.            Of the new cases, 99% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

4.            MOH has been monitoring existing clusters for any further transmission. As there have been no more cases linked to Strand Hotel (25 Bencoolen Street) for the past two incubation periods (i.e. 28 days), the cluster has now been closed.

Links between previous cases found

5.            In the past week (17 May to 23 May), MOH has uncovered links for 5 previously unlinked cases.

6.            Further epidemiological investigations and contact tracing have uncovered links between previously announced and new cases. Please refer to Annex B and Annex C for details.

Update on condition of confirmed cases

7.            994 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 14,876 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.

8.            There are currently 690 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 8 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit. 16,027 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. 23 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
24 MAY 2020