All dorms to be cleared of Covid-19 by Aug 7

All foreign workers in dormitories will be cleared by Friday (Aug 7) although the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases will fluctuate for the next two weeks, said Mr Lawrence Wong, the co-chair of the ministerial task force to tackle the pandemic.

He added that confirmed Covid-19 cases are then expected to “taper down significantly” after that.

There were 908 new coronavirus cases confirmed as of Wednesday noon (Aug 5), taking Singapore’s total to 54,254.

The vast majority are dormitory residents who were tested during their isolation or quarantine period, even though they are asymptomatic, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

Mr Wong said that workers who remain isolated in quarantine facilities have yet to be cleared.

“This final batch of workers who are in isolation will stay in isolation, complete their isolation period and will be tested before they exit from their quarantine facilities,” said Mr Wong.

The Ministry of Health said that it expects daily case counts to be high for the coming days, before tapering down thereafter as the inter-agency task force completes the dormitory clearance. It also noted that it was on track to clear all the dormitories by Aug 7 (Friday), except for a few standalone blocks in the dormitories that serve as quarantine facilities.

As of Tuesday, the average number of new daily cases in the community during the week has decreased from four cases two weeks ago to two in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community during a week has also fallen from a daily average of two cases to one over the same period.

Singapore has had 27 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes. /TISG