Singapore records 942 new coronavirus cases, surpassing Malaysia’s total
- The island nation now has 5,992 cases, compared with 5,305 in its neighbour across the causeway
- In Singapore, 86 per cent of its confirmed infections are among migrant workers living in dormitories
Figures released by the health ministry showed of the new infections, 893 – or 95 per cent – were work-permit holders living in dormitories, with only 14 infections among Singapore citizens or residents.
Associate professor Jeremy Lim of the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health said the drastic jump in cases was not surprising.
“A rise in cases is to be expected but expectations around the magnitude really depend on how many dormitory residents were tested and the proportion of positive cases out of the total tested,” he said.
Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease expert at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, said the surge in cases was the result of actively weeding out infections.
Singapore has a population of 5.6 million, a fraction of neighbouring Malaysia’s 31.5 million. The city state has conducted more than 94,000 tests as of April 14, or about 16,600 swabs per 1 million people. Malaysia is testing about 11,500 people per day, and at the end of March had provided about 1,000 tests per 1 million people – far fewer than Singapore.