SINGAPORE, May 24 (The Straits Times/ANN): There were 36 new coronavirus cases confirmed at noon on Monday (May 24), taking Singapore's total to 61,860. There were 24 community cases, 22 of which have been linked to previous cases.
Twelve had already been quarantined. There were no new cases from migrant workers' dormitories.
There were also 12 imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notice on arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH). Of these, five are returning Singaporeans or permanent residents.
The adjacent malls of Jem and Westgate in Jurong East were declared the centre of a new community cluster on Sunday (May 23), with four cases now linked to them.
Giving details of these as well as others in the 21 community cases announced on Sunday, the MOH said the four included a music teacher at Yamaha Music School who developed a fever and sought treatment five days later.
The 59-year-old man fell sick on May 16 and went to a GP clinic last Friday. His antigen rapid test come back positive on the same day and he was immediately isolated.
The other three individuals linked to the cluster include a 39-year-old cleaner at Westgate shopping mall and a 44-year-old visitor, whose preliminary tests have come back positive for the B1617 variant.
The last is a 31-year-old delivery truck driver who was detected during testing for people who worked in or had visited Jem and Westgate.
The two malls are now closed for two weeks, during which they will be cleaned.
Other local community cases include three connected to a large cluster at Changi Airport Terminal 3, such as a seven-year-old boy whose family had visited the airport on numerous occasions, two McDonald's delivery riders connected to a cluster at the Pasir Ris Elias Community Club outlet, and a 78-year-old woman linked to a cluster at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Of the community cases, 12 were under quarantine when they tested positive.
There are two unlinked community cases. The first is a vaccinated 60-year-old woman who was detected during testing for residents of Block 506 Hougang Avenue 8.
The second is a 74-year-old woman who had body aches, vomiting and chills last Wednesday and sought medical treatment on the same day but was not tested for Covid-19.
Her condition worsened on Saturday and she was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. She has also been vaccinated.
Other than the 21 community cases, a worker living in a dormitory, a 46-year-old construction worker at H&W Communications, also returned a positive test. He is asymptomatic and was detected when he was tested on Saturday as part of routine testing.
In addition, three imported cases were reported on Sunday.
Counting local and imported infections, 25 cases of Covid-19 were reported.
As at Sunday, the number of new cases in the community increased from 131 cases two weeks ago to 182 in the past week.
Unlinked cases per week were also up, from 30 two weeks ago to 46 in the past week.
A total of 17 patients were discharged on Sunday, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 61,279.
There are currently 242 active cases who are still in hospital, including three in critical condition in intensive care. Another 256 are in isolation in community facilities.
There have been 32 deaths here due to complications from the coronavirus, while another 15 who tested positive for the virus have died of other causes. - The Straits Times/ANN
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