The number of coronavirus cases hit 1,000 in Singapore on Wednesday (April 1) with the Ministry of Health announcing 74 new cases.

The new cases included those at two new clusters, including the first cluster at an old folks’ home.

A further 10 cases have now been linked to the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home at 1 Thomson Lane after one case was first identified there on Tuesday. Among the new cases is a 102-year-old woman, the oldest Covid-19 patient to date in Singapore.

The Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) said that eight of the 10 new cases are residents of the Lee Ah Mooi home. The other two are a staff member who cared for female residents of the home and a family member of the employee.

The family member works in a non-patient facing role at Moral Home for the Aged Sick.

“AIC has also been in contact with Moral Home, which has stepped up vigilance in monitoring the health status of residents and staff. So far, all its residents are well,” it said.

The Lee Ah Mooi home worked with the Health Ministry and the AIC to test all the home’s residents and symptomatic staff after the first confirmed case was identified on March 31. All staff of the home are on quarantine order, and the MOH and AIC are helping the home with manpower support, so that residents will not be affected.

As an added precaution, all nursing homes will be closed to visitors till April 30. Nursing homes will offer caregivers alternative options such as telephone or video calls. 

Safe distancing measures will also be carried out in the homes and those with more than 200 beds will have to implement split-zones.

The second new cluster is at a workers' dormitory at 55 Sungei Kadut Loop. Two new cases are linked to a previous case from that dormitory.

There are now at least three dormitories with active clusters. On Wednesday, there were six more cases at the S11 dormitory at Seletar North Link which makes a total of 10 confirmed cases, and two more cases at the Westlite Toh Guan dormitory on Toh Guan Road East, which makes a total of seven confirmed cases. 

There is  also one more case linked to the serviced apartment Wilby Residences, bringing the total number of cases there to eight, and one more case linked to the cluster at Hero's, the bar on Circular Road, which now has a total of  seven cases. 

article source: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/74-new-coronavirus-cases-in-spore-bringing-total-to-1000-54-new-cases-are-local-with-10