Singapore confirms 573 new COVID-19 cases

Singapore reported 573 new COVID-19 cases, mostly migrant workers, on Monday, taking the country's total count to 18,778, as the government extended for another week the strict restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the deadly virus. According to the Health Ministry, only five were the citizens and permanent residents (foreigners) of Singapore while the migrant workers living in dormitories continue to make up the bulk of the remaining cases.

Over the weekend, the government announced that some of the tighter restrictions put in place during Singapore's circuit breaker will continue for another week. They were to be eased as of Monday. "We would review the rate of transmissions in other countries, as well as what they have done to contain the spread (of coronavirus)," Health Minister Gan Kim Yong told Parliament, as the city-state looks at ways to reopen the economic activities.

"For any reopening of our borders, we are likely to start small and selectively, and to continue to impose a mix of isolation and test requirements, to protect ourselves from new imported cases leading to community spread," he said. Singapore must also put in place a system to be able to open up safely such as stepping up COVID-19 testing as there will be a higher risk of transmission when businesses and social activities are allowed to resume, Gan said.

"Therefore, we need to step up our capability and capacity to test and detect cases early, contact trace quickly, promptly ring-fence close contacts, and establish the original source of the infection to stop other undetected transmission chains, if any," he said. For the lifting of COVID-19 "circuit breaker" measures to reopen businesses locally, the daily number of local community cases should fall to zero or single digits over a sustained period of time as well as lower the infection levels in foreign worker dormitories, he said.

The Minister stressed on the need to reduce the number of coronavirus cases among migrant workers. "It is equally important to reduce the migrant worker cases (COVID-19) over time, though it will take a while longer. Otherwise, we will continue to be at risk of a spillover from the dormitories (housing foreign workers) into the wider population," Gan said.

"Numbers are important. We need to be assured that community transmission locally is stemmed, or very low," he said. "Community cases should ideally fall to zero or single-digits daily, with very low numbers of unlinked cases, not just for one day, but sustained over a period of time," Channel News Asia quoted Gan as saying.

To date, Singapore has conducted more than 140,000 COVID-19 tests, which works out to 2,500 tests per 100,000 people in the city-state, he said. "These are the key enablers which give us the confidence to reopen," he added.

Some businesses, such as barbers, home-based businesses, and laundry services, will be allowed to progressively open from May 12, although they still have to abide by precautions put in place earlier, The Straits Times reported. The Health Ministry said on Monday that 15,833 of the 323,000 migrant workers living in dormitories, or 4.9 percent, had tested positive for the virus.

In contrast, 569 migrant workers not living in dorms, as well as 1,224 Singapore citizens and permanent residents (foreigners), have been diagnosed with the virus. The virus' prevalence rates for migrant workers not living in dorms, and that for Singaporeans and permanent residents are 0.09 percent and 0.03 percent, respectively.

The ministry said on Sunday that the new community cases among the Singaporeans and PRs, as well as long-term pass and work pass holders, fell from an average of 21 daily cases two weeks ago to 11 in the past week. This excludes work permit holders who are not living in dormitories. A total of 18 people have died due to the disease in the country.

Globally, 247,531 people have died and over 3.5 million have been infected due to the novel coronavirus that first originated in December last year in Wuhan, China.