Yesterday, Singapore recorded its highest count of daily cases of the Covid-19 virus. However, today, we have over double that count. Today is Thursday, April 9th, and Singapore has announced that 287 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded today. This brings the total tally in Singapore to 1910 cases.
Of the new cases, 219 are linked to already existing clusters: at least 160 of those 219 are linked to the S11 Dormitory (foreign workers' dormitory) located in Punggol. 19 cases are linked to previous cases but we have a whopping 46 unlinked cases today.
The multi-ministry task force dealing with the coronavirus is working with the police and the Ministry of Defence. They have now established a link between the Mustafa Centre (located in Little India) and the various foreign worker dormitories along with the Project Glory construction site. Speculators believe that this is because on the foreign workers' days off, they would visit Little India and go into Mustafa. Over 296,000 of the foreign workers in Singapore come from regions near India so many of these workers 'feel at home' in Little India and affiliated areas.
Director of medical services at MOH Assoc Prof Kenneth Mak described how some of the dormitory cases were linked to the Mustafa Centre cluster. "We believe that the workers had visited Mustafa and they subsequently transmitted the infection to their co-workers," he said. "Transmission most likely occurred through close contact,for example at meal times, during breaks, and also between co-workers at work due to physical proximity at work sites," he said. The workers could have also spread the infection to friends and co-workers within the confined dormitories, he added.
Today, the task force explained the range of measures being taken to inhibit the spread of Covid-19 in dormitories: there would be "aggressive" testing of workers to separate those who are healthy and those who are infected (along with many other preventive measures). More than 5,000 workers in essential services who are not ill have been moved out to army camps and vacant HDB blocks such as those at Tanjong Pagar and Jurong.
PM Lee warns that if people do not take the Circuit Breaker measures seriously, there will be an upsurge in cases and harsher policies may be implemented. In addition to this, he expressed that the punishments for breaking said measures will be harsh and strictly enforced as there are still too many gatherings taking place. Read more on the Circuit Breaker measures here: https://covidawaresg.wixsite.com/covidawaresg/post/covid-19-law-passed-to-prohibit-parties-or-gatherings-of-any-size-at-home-and-in-public-spaces
Watch the press conference here:
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