214 new coronavirus cases in Singapore, including 3 in the community

There are no Singaporeans or permanent residents among the confirmed cases. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

SINGAPORE - There are 214 new coronavirus cases confirmed here as of Monday noon (June 15), the lowest daily figure in about two months.

They include three community cases, all of whom are work pass holders, said the Ministry of Health (MOH). There are no Singaporeans or permanent residents among the cases.

Migrant workers living in dormitories make up the vast majority of the other cases on Monday, said MOH.

Monday's figure is the lowest since the 191 cases announced on April 11, and takes Singapore's total patient number to 40,818.

More details will be announced on Monday night.

On Sunday, the ministry announced the first imported case since May 10 - a Bangladeshi man who came to Singapore to seek medical treatment that was not related to Covid-19 but later tested positive for the coronavirus.

He is among the 407 new Covid-19 cases reported on Sunday.

The patient arrived in Singapore last Wednesday. His health declaration submitted before immigration clearance indicated that he did not have any symptoms, and had not been diagnosed or suspected to have the infection. He was subsequently tested for Covid-19 and his results came back positive on Saturday.

While Singapore banned short-term visitors to the country at the end of March, some of these visitors have been allowed entry due to extenuating circumstances.

The Bangladeshi man had been granted a waiver by MOH based on medical grounds. He had been under the care of a doctor at Mount Elizabeth Hospital and had two operations performed earlier in Singapore, MOH said on Monday.

He needed to seek follow-up specialist medical care here as he is facing medical complications and was not responding well to treatment in his home country.

The man was placed on stay-home notice at a designated hotel when he arrived here, MOH added. He was taken from the airport to his hotel via a dedicated vehicle, and could only leave his designated place of residence for medical consultation and follow-up.

There were nine community cases announced on Sunday, comprising four Singaporeans, one work pass holder and four work permit holders. Five of the nine cases were found to be linked to previously announced cases, while the rest are unlinked.

Of the four Singaporean cases were two men, aged 48 and 59, who had worked in a foreign worker dormitory, Cassia @ Penjuru, and tested positive on Saturday during a screening for people working in dormitories.

The third was a 40-year-old Singaporean man who had already been quarantined and is a family member of a previously confirmed case. He was swabbed during quarantine to verify his status and was asymptomatic.

The fourth Singaporean case was a 43-year-old man who was asymptomatic and unlinked to previous cases.

Overall, MOH said that in the past two weeks, the number of new cases in the community remained stable at an average of eight per day, while the number of unlinked cases in the community is also an average of eight per day.

Migrant workers staying in dorms made up the remaining 397 cases.

So far, 26 people here have died from complications due to Covid-19. Ten others who tested positive for the coronavirus have died from other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December last year, has infected more than 7.98 million people. More than 435,000 people have died.

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