Singapore seals more dormitories as coronavirus cases among foreign workers spike

Singapore on Friday sealed four more dormitories housing foreign workers, including Indians, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as the number of infections among the country's massive migrant worker population spiked.

The city-state confirmed 897 new cases of COVID-19 as of noon on Friday, majority of which were from the dormitories for foreign workers, taking the total number of infections in the country to 12,075.

Thirteen of the new cases are Singaporeans (citizens) or permanent residents (foreigners), said the Health Ministry.

Migrant workers living in the dormitories continue to be the most severely impacted demographic, comprising the majority of the remaining cases, said the ministry.

 

Four more foreign worker dormitories were gazetted as isolation areas on Friday. To date, 25 dormitories, housing foreign workers, have been gazetted as isolation areas.

Twelve people in Singapore have died due to COVID-19. An Indian worker, confirmed to be a COVID-19 patient, died on Thursday.

Singapore is more than two weeks into its "circuit breaker" period, a move by the Government to break the cycle of transmission of COVID-19.

The period with measures introduced to control the spread of the deadly disease, was initially scheduled to end on May 4, but was extended to June 1.

Indians make up the second-largest group -- in terms of nationality -- of coronavirus patients in Singapore.

A rising wave of infections among Singapore's migrant worker population threatens to derail the city-state's success in fighting the coronavirus, authorities have said.