The new cases include an 89-year-old nursing home resident, a seven-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl.

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported a record 728 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday (Apr 16), bringing the total number of infections in the country to 4,427.

Of the new cases, 81 per cent are linked to previously identified clusters while the rest are pending contact tracing, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the media release.





A total of 654 new cases are from foreign worker dormitories, while 26 are work permit holders residing outside dormitories.



As for local cases in the community, 48 cases were reported on Thursday, and there were no new imported cases.



Among the new cases is an 89-year-old resident of Pacific Healthcare Nursing Home at 21 Senja Road, according to the Agency for Integrated Care.

The resident, identified as Case 4053, is now warded in an isolation room at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.





A seven-year-old Singaporean boy and 13-year-old Singaporean girl are also among the new cases reported on Thursday.



The boy, who is a family member of Cases 1305 and 1660, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and is warded at KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

The girl is a family member of Case 2105 and tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. She is also warded at KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

The ministry noted that the number of new cases among work permit holders residing in dormitories has increased significantly "in line with our continued efforts to actively test and isolate the infected workers".



Among work permit holders who do not live in dormitories, the number of new cases has increased to an average of 15 per day in the past week from an average of nine per day in the week prior.

On the other hand, the number of new cases in the community has slightly decreased, to an average of 37 per day in the past week from an average of 38 cases per day in the week prior.

MOH added that 31 more patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 683 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged.



MOH provided a full list of the new cases reported on Thursday on its website.



5 NEW CLUSTERS



Five new clusters were identified by the ministry: Leo dormitory (23 Kaki Bukit Road 3), SJ Dormitory (180 Woodlands Industrial Park E5), Westlite Mandai (34 Mandai Estate), 17 Sungei Kadut Street 4 and Grandwork Building (7 Sungei Kadut Street 3).



Between Apr 9 and Apr 15, MOH uncovered links for 415 previously unlinked cases.



Two more clusters have now been closed as there has been no new case linked to them for the past 28 days, which make up two incubation periods. They are the clusters at Masjid Al-Muttaqin and Church of Singapore (Bukit Timah).



On Thursday morning, Mandai Lodge 1 was declared an isolation area after a new cluster of cases was identified there.



A total of 154 new cases have been linked to this cluster, which now has 161 confirmed cases, according to MOH's data.

Three more dormitories were later gazetted: Shaw Lodge Dormitory (12 Shaw Road), North Coast Lodge (51 North Coast Avenue) and Tuas View Dormitory (70 Tuas South Avenue 1).



Shaw Lodge has a total of 28 confirmed cases. North Coast Lodge has 26 cases, while Tuas View Dormitory has 73 cases.

There are now 12 foreign worker dormitories under isolation in total.

S11 Dormitory @ Punggol remains the biggest cluster with 979 confirmed cases.

The next biggest cluster is Sungei Tengah Lodge with 351 confirmed cases.

Westlite Toh Guan dormitory, one of the first two dormitories to be gazetted, now has a total of 115 confirmed cases.



CLUSTERS

Further epidemiological investigations and contact tracing have uncovered links between previously announced and new cases:

21 of the earlier confirmed cases have now been linked to a new cluster at The Leo dormitory (23 Kaki Bukit Road 3).

One of the newly confirmed cases is linked to six previous cases, forming a new cluster at SJ Dormitory (180 Woodlands Industrial Park E5).

28 of the newly confirmed cases are linked to three previous cases, forming a new cluster at Westlite Mandai (34 Mandai Estate).

Six of the earlier confirmed cases have now been linked to a new cluster at 17 Sungei Kadut Street 4.

Seven of the earlier confirmed cases have now been linked to a new cluster at Grandwork Building (7 Sungei Kadut Street 3).

13 additional cases are linked to the cluster at Acacia Lodge (530-540 Bukit Batok Street 23), which has a total of 69 confirmed cases now.

Two additional cases are linked to the cluster at Cassia @ Penjuru (15 Penjuru Walk), which has a total of 18 confirmed cases now.

22 additional cases are linked to the cluster at Cochrane Lodge I (51 Admiralty Road West), which has a total of 75 confirmed cases now.

Three additional cases are linked to the cluster at Cochrane Lodge II (49 Admiralty Road West), which has a total of 49 confirmed cases now.

Six additional cases are linked to the cluster at Kranji Lodge (12 Kranji Road), which has a total of 23 confirmed cases now.

154 additional cases are linked to the cluster at Mandai Lodge I (460 Mandai Road), which has a total of 161 confirmed cases now.

Eight additional cases are linked to the cluster at North Coast Lodge (51 North Coast Avenue), which has a total of 26 cases now.

12 additional cases are linked to the clusters at PPT Lodge 1A (8 Seletar North Link), which has a total of 30 confirmed cases now.

181 additional cases are linked to the cluster at S11 Dormitory @ Punggol (2 Seletar North Link), which has a total of 979 confirmed cases now.

Four additional cases are linked to the cluster at Shaw Lodge (12 Shaw Road), which has a total of 28 confirmed cases now.

73 additional cases are linked to the cluster at Sungei Tengah Lodge (500 Old Choa Chu Kang Road), which has a total of 351 confirmed cases now.

Eight additional cases are linked to the cluster at Tampines Dormitory (2 Tampines Place), which has a total of 69 cases now.

Seven additional cases are linked to the cluster at Toh Guan Dormitory (19A Toh Guan Road East), which has a total of 90 confirmed cases now.

30 additional cases are linked to the cluster at Tuas View Dormitory (70 Tuas South Avenue 1), which has a total of 73 confirmed cases now.

Five additional cases are linked to the cluster at Westlite Toh Guan dormitory (18 Toh Guan Road East), which has a total of 115 confirmed cases now.

19 additional cases are linked to the cluster at 31 Sungei Kadut Avenue, which has a total of 46 cases now.

Three additional cases are linked to the cluster at 21B Senoko Loop, which has a total of 15 cases now.

Three additional cases are linked to the cluster at 13 Senoko Way, which has a total of five cases now.

Two additional cases are linked to the cluster at Tech Park Crescent dormitory (43 Tech Park Crescent), which has a total of 21 confirmed cases now.

One additional case is linked to the cluster at 36 Woodlands Industrial Park E1, which has a total of 28 cases now.

Two additional cases are linked to the cluster at a construction site at Project Glory (50 Market Street), which has a total of 64 confirmed cases now.

Five additional cases are linked to the cluster at the Kenyon/ UBS construction site (9 Penang Road), which has a total of 20 cases now.

One additional case is linked to the cluster at the renovation sites at the National University Hospital (5 Lower Kent Ridge Road), which has a total of 27 confirmed cases now.

One additional case is linked to the cluster at ABC Hostel (3 Jalan Kubor), which has a total of nine confirmed cases now.

Two additional cases are linked to the cluster at CitiWall (34 Kaki Bukit Crescent), which has a total of 8 confirmed cases now.

One additional case is linked to the cluster at McDonald’s, which has a total of six cases now.

ACTION TAKEN AGAINST THOSE WHO VIOLATE COVID-19 MEASURES

A man who breached his stay-home notice to go out to run errands and eat bak kut teh pleaded guilty on Thursday to exposing others to the risk of infection - the first case of its kind.

The 34-year-old man did not go home immediately when he landed in Singapore from Myanmar and when he did go home, he did not remain there.

Instead, he appeared in public several times over a four-hour period in behaviour labelled “blatantly irresponsible” by the prosecutors.



From Monday to Wednesday, 19 instances of enforcement action were also taken against members of the public for violating of safe distancing requirements at markets and cooked food sections of hawker centres, according to the National Environment Agency (NEA).

In one case on Wednesday, a man was seen eating at the cooked food section of a hawker centre at Block 89 Circuit Road when he was approached by NEA enforcement officers.

The man refused to provide his particulars to the NEA officers, who then activated the police. The man attempted to leave before the police arrived, and when an NEA officer tried to stop him, the man hit the officer in the face.

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