MOH: Covid-19 testing done for all nursing home staff and residents

Singapore

ALL nursing home staff members and residents have now been tested, said the health ministry.

After one round of surveillance swab tests conducted on about 13,200 residents and 9,000 staff, only five have tested positive. Four are residents of Orange Valley Nursing Home and the staff member is from Ren Ci @ Ang Mo Kio. The confirmed cases had been announced on May 21 and May 8 respectively.

Parkway Parade shopping centre has also been added to the Ministry of Health's (MOH) list of public places visited by local community cases while they were infected.

This comes as MOH confirmed 518 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 34,884.

Of the new cases, 516 are migrant workers residing in dormitories while one is a Singaporean and the other is a permanent resident. Both are currently unlinked and were confirmed to have the disease on Saturday.

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The Singapore citizen is a 73-year-old woman who first had symptoms on May 26, while the permanent resident is an 18-year-old male who first had symptoms on May 28.

There were no imported cases. A new cluster in a dormitory at 128 Tuas South Avenue 3 was confirmed on Sunday, while a cluster at the Institute of Mental Health has been closed as no new cases were linked to it for two incubation periods of the virus, or 28 days.

Other places visited by "community" cases - which excludes migrant workers living in dorms - include Jurong Point, Bukit Panjang Plaza, Jem, and Junction 8. The full list, along with the dates and times when the locations were visited by the patients, can be found on the MOH website.

The daily average for new community cases has decreased to four in the past week from six the week before, said MOH.

Across the same periods, the number of unlinked cases has remained stable at an average of two per day.

MOH also said 972 more patients were discharged on Sunday, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 21,690.

Singapore has seen 23 deaths from Covid-19 complications and nine patients who tested positive for Covid-19 died of other causes. THE STRAITS TIMES