SINGAPORE, 24 April 2020:
As part of the city-state’s push to take more steps to further reduce transmission of Covid-19, Singapore had introduced a targeted measure to improve crowd management at four ‘hotspot’ markets from April 22.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) on its website said under the system, patrons’ access to these four markets is restricted based on the last digit of their National Registration Identification Card (NRIC) or Foreign Identification Number (FIN).
Those with an even last digit (0, 2, 4, 6, 8) can only visit these markets on the even dates of the month, while those with an odd last digit (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) only on the odd dates of the month, it said.
The four popular markets are Geylang Serai Market, Chong Pang Market, Block 20/21 Marsiling Lane, and Block 505 Jurong West Street 52.
The NEA said since the implementation of the new restriction at the four markets, visibly shorter queues have been observed outside the markets.
Singapore’s one-month circuit breaker to curb Covid-19 transmision, which kicked in on April 7, has been extended to June 1.
Its Ministry of Health (MoH) today confirmed an additional 897 cases of Covid-19 infection, raising the tally for the republic to 12,075.
MoH attributed the vast majority of the cases to foreign worker residing in dormitories at 853 plus 19 Work Permit holders residing outside dormitories.
Only 13 new cases are Singaporeans or Permanent Residents and 12 with Work Passes. There were no imported cases.
“Of the new cases, 68% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing, MoH said in a late statement.
It said 38 more cases of Covid-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 956 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.
There are currently 1,229 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 24 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
In an earlier statement, MoH had said as at noon yesterday, Singapore recorded 1,037 new cases of Covid-19 infection with no imported cases, 22 cases in the community while 30 involved work permit holders residing outside dormitories. About 95% of yesterday’s new cases were dorm residents.
In a detailed statement issued later, MoH said it was picking up many more cases because of extensive testing. “Most of these cases have a mild illness and are being monitored in community isolation facilities or general ward of our hospitals. None of them is in the intensive care unit.”
MoH noted that of yesterday’s new cases, 75% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing. In the past week – April 16 to 22 -, the ministry said it has uncovered links for 1,024 previously unlinked cases.
Overall, 924 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, 26 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, while 12 have died.
As of April 23, Singapore has identified six more new clusters which were mostly dorms, namely Blue Stars Dormitory; Hulett Dormitory; Seatown Dormitory; Woodlands Dormitory; 12 Loyang Drive; and 59 Sungei Kadut Loop.
Singapore’s largest cluster, S11 Dormitory @ Punggol has so far a total of 2,234 confirmed cases.
For yesterday’s tally of 11,178, Singapore classified 9,076 of them as dorm residents, while 432 involving work permit holders not residing in dorms, 1,101 community cases and another 569 were imported cases.
A large facility is being set up at the Tanjong Pagar Terminal to potentially house up to 15,000 Covid-19 patients and foreign workers as the number of coronavirus cases in Singapore continues to rise, The Straits Times reported.
Over the last few days, the report said regular visits to the site have shown large marquees being set up with trucks carrying building materials could also be seen entering the terminal which has been vacant since port operations relocated in 2017 as part of plans for a future mega port in Tuas.
As of Wednesday, the report said at least five or six rows of tents have already been set up at the terminal.
It also said that over the last few weeks, the Singapore government has been clearing and preparing various locations to house healthy foreign workers to curb the spread of the virus in worker dormitories or to convert them into community isolation sites.
The community isolation facilities which include the Singapore Expo, Changi Exhibition Centre, and D’Resort NTUC in Pasir Ris, are meant to house recovering COVID-19 patients and those with milder symptoms, the daily reported.
All of the 10,000 foreign workers in essential services living in purpose-built dormitories have been moved into 18 alternative living areas such as military camps, floating hotels, sports halls and vacant Housing Board blocks.
Cruise ships are also being considered to house the workers with one such ship is the SuperStar Gemini, currently berthed at Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore near the Tanjong Pagar Terminal site.
– Bernama