Singapore heading in the right direction in fight against COVID-19: Minister Ong Ye Kung

Singapore is heading in the right direction in its fight against COVID-19, with the number of cases dropping in the past week, said Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung on Sunday (Jun 6). 

The co-chair of the Multi-Ministry Taskforce for COVID-19 added that this was possible because of the “contribution of everyone”. 

“Overall infection numbers over the last seven days have dropped further from the past week. The percentage of infected people who were detected while under quarantine has gone up from 57 per cent to 73 per cent. This means very little chance for them to move around and spread to others,” added Mr Ong, who made the remarks in a Facebook post. 

“More encouraging is that the unlinked cases have fallen from 18 per cent to 15 per cent.”

Mr Ong’s post was accompanied by an image of a handwritten table breaking down the number of cases from the past three weeks. 

From May 17 to 25, Singapore had a total of 182 community cases, compared to just 116 from May 31 to Jun 6. 

Singapore entered Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) on May 16 to combat a spike in the number of community cases. Authorities have since said that measures will be relaxed by Jun 13, when P2HA ends, if the situation remains under control.

“Let’s keep it up,” Mr Ong said in his Facebook post. 

On Sunday, only six community cases were reported – the lowest since May 10. Only one case was unlinked. 

The sole unlinked community case is a 13 year-old student at Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School. She was last in school on May 18. 

Two of the community cases are linked to the Tektonix cluster, one is linked to the NTUC Foodfare cluster and the remaining case is linked to the McDonalds delivery riders cluster. 

The Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and Pasir Panjang Terminal clusters were closed on Sunday after no new cases were linked to it for 28 days.