News

5 New Clusters Reported on 28 July, Including a Bakery in Jurong

2021-07-29 , 9:59 am

The first week of our second Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) has not seen much change in our daily case count.

Over a hundred new cases are being reported daily, though Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said this could have been a much higher number were it not for the tightened measures.

Yesterday, 130 new locally transmitted cases were reported, along with five new clusters.

Here are the details:

5 New Clusters Reported, Including a Bakery in Jurong

At the start of the month, we’d report maybe five to ten new COVID-19 infections a day. Now, that’s the number of new clusters we’re identifying daily.

Yesterday, five new clusters were confirmed, bringing the total number of active clusters here to 44.

One is linked to Home’s Favourite, a bakery in Jurong Food Hub, while the remaining four clusters involve individual cases.

MOH’s investigations found that there is likely ongoing transmission at Home Favourite’s premises, and have thus closed the bakery for two weeks until 12 Aug.

All staff members will also be placed on quarantine and tested.

The bakery cluster currently has 6 cases, while the other four clusters have three to four cases each.

Two Biggest Clusters Continue to Grow

It seems like nothing will stop our two biggest clusters in their tracks, as they continue to grow every day.

The number of new additions, however, is declining.

Of the 130 new infections, 27 were linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster and 2 to the KTV cluster.

With this, the seaport now has 932 cases, while the KTV cluster has 247 infections.

Free Testing For Visitors of Jurong Market

Those who visited Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre between 13 Jul and 27 Jul will be able to get a free COVID-19 test, as the health ministry is investigating cases of COVID-19 infection there.

If you have visited the market during the specified period, do monitor your health closely and minimise social interactions for 14 days from your date of visit or interaction, MOH said.

567 Cases in Hospital

At the moment, there are 567 COVID-19 cases in hospital, most of whom are well and under observation.

23 severe cases require oxygen supplementation, and two are in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Only one among them has been fully vaccinated, but requires oxygen supplementation as she has underlying medical conditions.

16 of them are seniors above 60 who have fallen very ill, of whom only one is full vaccinated.

Health Minister Encourages More Seniors to Get Vaccinated

According to Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, there are now 187,000 seniors who have yet to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

He believes that one of the reasons is that they, or their family members, have a fear of the vaccine having serious adverse effects, such as strokes or heart attacks.

To reassure seniors that this was not the case, he shared a graph with findings by MOH showing the number of strokes and acute myocardial infarctions since 2018.

Have a look:

As Mr Ong noted, heart attacks and strokes happen naturally within our population, “with or without COVID-19 vaccination”.

“The two graphs show that numbers have remained steady, despite the fact that the number of seniors grew over the few years,” he said.

“I hope these numbers provide some peace of mind for seniors and their family members, to go ahead and take the vaccines.”

Seniors can walk into any vaccination centre, Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPCs), or polyclinics to get their first dose.

What’s more, those with mobility issues can have their jabs done at home. Call 1800-650-6060 to make an appointment.

Learn more about vaccination here: