SINGAPORE - The Republic has confirmed 32 new coronavirus patients, including 24 imported cases, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Thursday (March 19).

This is a drop from the 47 new cases that were recorded on Wednesday, the highest number since the start of the outbreak.

All of the imported cases were returning residents and long-term pass holders, with the bulk having travelled to Europe - currently the epicentre of the virus. Most patients who visited Europe were in Britain – 13 patients – while the others had visited countries like Switzerland and France.

As for the other imported cases, they had visited other countries such as the United States and parts of Asia like Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The remaining eight patients were locally transmitted cases, with two linked to previous cases including one from a sub-cluster linked to the Boulder+ Gym at 12 Kallang Avenue. Boulder+ Gym is a sub-cluster of a cluster linked to a private dinner event at Safra Jurong.

The other six local cases are not linked to previous cases.

With 32 new cases on Thursday, the total number of infected patients here now stands at 345. Of these, 159 are imported cases and the remaining 186 cases are locally transmitted cases.

This means close to one in two patients in Singapore are imported cases who got the coronavirus from overseas.

Seven more patients have been discharged from hospital, bringing the total number of patients who have fully recovered to 124.

Of the 221 patients still in hospital, 15 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

As of Thursday 12pm, MOH said it has identified 6,574 close contacts who have been quarantined.

Of these, 2,273 are currently quarantined, and 4,301 have completed their quarantine.