SINGAPORE (UCAN): Singaporean authorities confirmed 74 new Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) cases on April 1, the country’s highest daily increase to date. Of these, 54 were local cases with no recent travel history. Officials said the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home had become a new cluster with 11 infections. They include a 102-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man. A second cluster, a workers’ dormitory, was also identified raising fears that the virus may have entered the third phase of community spread.
The city-state, which was believed to have checked the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, reported a fourth death 19 on April 2. The victim was a 68-year-old Indonesian working in the city which reported its first coronavirus deaths on March 21—a 75-year-old Singaporean woman and a 64-year-old Indonesian man. On March 29, a 70-year-old Singaporean man became the third victim to die due to Covid-19.
Health ministry officials are working to provide the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home with workforce support to ensure service continuity “so that its residents will not be affected,” said an official statement.
At least three cases were associated with public healthcare workers—a clinical research coordinator, a nurse and a doctor, the ministry said on April 1.
It said 24 people are in critical condition in intensive care units, while 291 cases are isolated. The rest are under observation.
The economy of Singapore, the region’s financial hub, has suffered since the pandemic forced the government to place restrictions on transport and public activities.
The ministry of trade and industry in a March 19 statement said that Singapore’s economy would shrink by one to four per cent this year.
The National Wages Council has released a guideline asking companies to reduce non-wage costs and turn to government support, and to retrench staff only as a last resort.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, the Archdiocese of Seoul announced in a press release on April 2 that it would be extending the suspension of all public Masses until further notice, reversing its decision on March 25 to resume public Masses in time for schools reopening on April 6.
Holy Week liturgies and Easter Sunday Mass will be attended only by a small group of diocesan priests without the faithful present.
The Catholic Peace Broadcasting Corporation will broadcast Holy Week liturgies live on television as well as on YouTube.
