SINGAPORE, 19 April 2020:
Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MoH) has preliminarily confirmed 596 new cases of Covid-19 infection, bringing the tally now to 6,588.
This results in the republic having the highest tally of Covid-19 cases in the Asean region – ahead of Philippines which now has a total of 6,259 confirmed coronavirus cases and 409 deaths and Indonesia’s tally is 6,575 positive cases and 582 deaths. This situation can change rapidly as Indonesia’s exact situation remains an unknown.
Singapore’s MoH said the vast majority of the cases are Work Permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories while 25 are Singaporeans/ Permanent Residents.
“We are still working through the details of the cases, and further updates will be shared via the MOH press release that will be issued tonight,” the ministry said in a statement today.
Singapore has gazetted 12 out of more than 20 affected dorms as isolation areas with most of the infected dorm residents from Bangladesh, India, China and Myanmar.
Meanwhile, another 47 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours in Indonesia, bringing the total fatalities in the country to 582 cases.
The Indonesian government spokesman on Covid-19, Achmad Yurianto, said the number of positive cases also rose to 6,575. “From 12 noon yesterday to 12 noon today, another 47 deaths and 327 positive cases were reported.”
He said 34 of the 47 deaths occurred in Jakarta Province. With that, Jakarta Province recorded the highest overall fatalities with 287 cases, followed by West Java (59 cases), East Java (54), Central Java (44) and the remaining in other Indonesian provinces.
Thailand has reported 32 new Covid-19 cases and no new fatalities for second consecutive days, bringing the total of positive cases to 2,765 with the number of casualties remains at 47.
Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) spokesman Thaweesilp Wissanuyothin said another 141 patients had recovered and returned home, raising the tally of patients discharged from hospital to 1,928 with 790 patients were still receiving treatment.
He said nine provinces in Thailand remained free from Covid-19. “A total of 33 provinces have no new cases of Covid-19 in the last 14 days.”
At the daily briefing today, he said from January to March, about 36% of Covid-19 cases were linked to those who returned from abroad and 20% were those visited entertainment outlets.
However, he said from March to April, 36% of the new cases were linked to patients who had close contact with previously confirmed cases, mostly family members, while another 14% were travellers to Thailand.
As the situation in the kingdom continues to improve, many have called on the government to lift restrictions as the Emergency Decree will expire on April 30.
Some shopping malls are preparing to reopen their business. Thaweesilp said prime minister Gen Prayuth Chan o-cha would chair a meeting to discuss and decide the matter.
– Bernama