Coronavirus: 66 new cases, 2 new clusters at Little Gems Preschool and Kranji Lodge workers' dormitory

One new cluster is at Little Gems Preschool at Ang Mo Kio Street 62. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

SINGAPORE - Singapore reported 66 cases of Covid-19 on Monday (April 6), along with two new clusters, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily update.

Of the total, 65 are local cases and one is imported, which means the patient was infected while overseas. They bring the total number of cases here to 1,375.

Among the local cases, links to existing clusters have been established for 35 cases, of which 24 are linked to clusters at foreign worker dormitories and 11 are linked to non-dormitory clusters.

Contact tracing is ongoing for the remaining 30 cases.

One new cluster is at Little Gems Preschool at Ang Mo Kio Street 62 with three cases, while the other at Kranji Lodge, a foreign worker dormitory, also has three cases.

The number of cases in known clusters at foreign worker dormitories continued to swell, with 25 more cases were linked to the S11 Dormitory @ Punggol. It now has 88 cases - the largest cluster so far.

Six more cases were linked to Toh Guan Dormitory at Toh Guan Road East, which now has 14 cases.

On Monday evening, the Toh Guan Dormitory was gazetted as an isolation area - the third foreign worker dormitory to receive this order after the S11 Dormitory and Westlite in Toh Guan. This means its workers will be quarantined in their rooms for the next 14 days.

Four more cases were linked to Tampines Dormitory, which now has nine. Other clusters at dormitories - Sungei Tengah Lodge, Westlite Toh Guan, 55 Sungei Kadut Loop, and Cochrane Lodge II - also had more cases linked to them.

In a statement on Monday, an Early Childhood Development Agency spokesman said the Ang Mo Kio preschool was told to close from Sunday to April 14 after a teaching staff tested positive on Saturday.

The other two from the cluster are a relief teacher, and a two-year-old girl who was last in school on April 3. She had cleared health checks, was well throughout her day in school, and developed symptoms the next day.

All the children and staff at the preschool have been placed on leave of absence, and those in close contact with the confirmed cases have been placed on home quarantine, added the spokesman.

The closure of the centre has been extended to April 17.

Among the latest cases announced was a 27-year-old patient therapy associate at the Institute of Mental Health with no recent travel history to affected regions or countries.

She had reported onset of symptoms on March 30, and is currently warded in an isolation room at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

There were 24 patients discharged on Monday. To date, a total of 344 cases have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.

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Of the 571 confirmed cases still in hospital, most are stable or improving, with 25 in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

In its update, MOH said further epidemiological investigations have uncovered a link between the cluster at PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Fengshan, which has 27 cases, to a family member of the school's principal - Case 601.

Investigations showed that a family member of the principal had travelled to Malaysia on March 4 and was likely infected there, said the ministry.

She later transmitted the infection to other family members, including Case 601, who likely infected the rest of the affected staff members at her preschool through a staff meeting, MOH added.

There are 454 cases who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19 who are isolated and cared for at Concord International Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and the Community Isolation Facility at D'Resort NTUC.

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