A migrant worker pictured outside his dormitory room at Cochrane Lodge I, which was declared an isolation area due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore, on 16 April, 2020. (PHOTO: Reuters)

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (16 April) reported a record 728 more COVID-19 cases in Singapore – a 62 per cent jump from the previous daily high – taking its total to 4,427.

The ministry also confirmed five new clusters, three of which are linked to foreign worker dormitories: at The Leo dormitory at 23 Kaki Bukit Road 3, SJ Dormitory at 180 Woodlands Industrial Park E5, and Westlite Mandai at 34 Mandai Estate.

The other two new clusters are linked to concrete product supplier Group Industries at 17 Sungei Kadut Street 4 and Grandwork Building at 7 Sungei Kadut Street 3.

The announcement also marks the seventh consecutive day with no imported cases and comes one day after the city-state reported 447 new cases, its previous single-day high.

Of the 728 new cases, 654 are linked to foreign worker dorms. Of the remaining cases, 48 are linked to other local community cases, while 26 are work permit holders not living in dorms.

View photos (SOURCE: MOH) More

Almost a fifth, or 19 per cent, of the new cases have no established links, including case 4053, an 89-year-old resident at the Pacific Healthcare Nursing Home at 21 Senja Road.

The Singaporean woman tested positive on Wednesday and is now warded in an isolation room at the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

Contact tracing is ongoing and those who had close contact with the resident will be quarantined, said the Agency for Integrated Care in a separate statement.

On case 3431 reported on Wednesday, the MOH said that she is a 41-year-old Singaporean woman employed as an administrative staff at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

She is the third staff member of the hospital to have tested positive for the virus.

The woman – an unlinked local transmission – had no recent travel history to affected countries or regions and reported developing symptoms on 10 April and tested positive for the virus on 14 April.

She is currently warded at the Sengkang General Hospital. The woman does not have contact with patients in the course of her work and has not been at work since the end of her shift on 8 April, said the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in a Facebook post on Friday.

“To mitigate any risk of infection, we have carried out all necessary precautions including thorough cleaning and disinfection of relevant work areas. Contact tracing is underway and we have promptly informed and updated colleagues who had been in contact with her,” said the hospital.

The MOH also said that it has been monitoring existing clusters for any further transmission.

“As there have been no more cases linked to Masjid Al-Muttaqin and Church of Singapore (Bukit Timah) for the past two incubation periods (i.e. 28 days), the clusters have now been closed,” it added.

(For more details on the breakdown of the clusters, read here.)

(For more on the 728 cases, read here.)

31 more patients discharged; 23 in ICU

The MOH on Thursday also confirmed that 31 more patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, bringing the total of recovered cases to 683.

Most of the 1,886 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while 23 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, down from 26 on Wednesday.

A total of 1,848 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Ten have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection, including a 70-year-old Singaporean man on Tuesday.

Another two patients, who tested positive for the virus, have died from causes unrelated to COVID-19.

At least 26 clusters linked to foreign worker dormitories have been identified thus far, including the largest cluster of 979 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol.

As of Wednesday noon, the MOH said it has identified 36,072 close contacts who have been quarantined. Of these, 15,489 are currently quarantined, and 20,583 have completed their quarantine.