Yesterday, the number of new Covid-19 cases in Singapore was staggering at 728.
And I’m pretty sure some hardcore gamblers out there are celebrating right now because they managed to guess the right number of new cases.
Now, before you go all cray-cray
Know that community transmission has actually fallen a little bit.
Covid-19 cases in dormitories make up most of the numbers for the past two weeks’ daily reported figures.
For example, out of 728 cases yesterday (16 Apr), 654 are work permit holders living in dormitories while another 26 cases are work permit holders who are not living in dormitories.
Which is probably why we’re not surprised to hear about the isolation of more dormitories this morning.
3 More Dormitories Declared As Isolation Areas, Which Means 12 Out of 43 Dormitories Are Now Under Quarantine
As of 17 Apr 2020, the authorities have declared three more foreign worker dormitories as isolated areas.
With that, 12 out of 43 foreign worker dormitories are now under lockdown.
They are:
- Tuas View Dormitory
- Shaw Lodge Dormitory
- and the North Coast Dormitory
The Tuas View Dormitory logged 30 additional cases to their count, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 73.
Meanwhile, Shaw Lodge Dormitory has 28 confirmed Covid-19 cases while North Coast Dormitory currently has 26 cases.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) once again emphasised that the drastic increase in numbers is due to increased testing efforts at the dormitories.
A Three-Prong Approach To Controlling Covid-19 Spread At Dormitories
Manpower Minister Josephine Teo revealed how the government has been trying to arrest the spread of Covid-19 in dormitories on 14 Apr 2020.
The authorities, she said, uses a three-prong strategy:
- Lockdown dormitories which already have clusters so there’s no movement in or out (just like how they dealt with imported cases)
- It’s not just the 12 dormitories; the remaining dormitories might not be isolated areas but workers staying in them are subject to the same measures (no cooking, no mixing, required to stay in rooms, etc).
- Building temporary dormitories to house healthy workers who are still required to go out and work in essential services (separate them from potential clusters).
Community Transmission Has Fallen But It Could Go Either Way
The circuit breaker measures have gone a long way in helping to keep community transmission down.
Just take a look at the chart that was provided by MOH.
While the number of new cases in Singapore is worrying, community transmission actually remains stable after import cases fell to zero.
However, the authorities have also warned Singaporeans not to let down their guards, because it’s being careful and practising safe distancing that has led to this outcome.
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We’re now 10 days into the CB measures and PM Lee has said that we’ll see some results on the 11th day (18 Apr 2020). Assuming 7 Apr is day 0.
