Singapore Reports Record New Cases, Quarantines 20,000 Migrant Workers

Singapore reported 120 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, by far the highest daily rise, and quarantined nearly 20,000 migrant workers in its dormitories.

Of the new Sunday cases, 116 were locally transmitted and many were connected to two dormitories that house migrant staff, who would now have to remain in their rooms for 14 days.

The number of new cases is 60 percent higher than the 75 reported on Saturday, the previous biggest regular rise. Singapore registered a total of 1,309 infections and six deaths from the novel coronavirus virus.

Tens of thousands of blue-collar foreign workers live within close quarters in various dormitories in the tiny Southeast Asian nation, an island city-state. They form a significant part of the labor force, working in sectors from construction to cleaning.

The spike in cases comes two days before the country will begin closing schools and most workplaces for a month as part of tighter restrictions to combat the COVID-19 disease.

Singapore was one of the hardest affected countries after the virus first traveled from China in January, but a tight monitoring and quarantine policy helped stop the tide. Nevertheless, recent rises in locally transmitted cases have posed fresh questions.

The government is also turning a huge exhibition center east of the island into a treatment facility for patients who have largely healed from COVID-19 but could still be contagious. This would be the second facility after the hotel was transformed last month to separate up to 500 these men.