Coronavirus: Singapore reports no new local cases; India sees lowest daily tally since August
- This is the first time since February that Singapore has not had any Covid-19 cases in the community, following an outbreak in worker dormitories
- South Korea reported its first triple-digit increase in six days, while India registered 55,342 infections and New South Wales will ease restrictions
There were no cases in the community as well as in the foreign worker dormitories, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health. There were four new imported cases.
The major milestone comes two months after Singapore declared dormitories – where some 300,000 migrant workers live – clear of the virus, though some infection clusters continued to persist after that. Already, the outbreak among the more than 54,000 workers has forced a rethink of Singapore’s management and reliance on its low-wage labour force, having been one of the earliest examples of the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups.
In the rest of the country, virus cases were kept at low levels through mandatory mask-wearing and other social distancing measures as the economy largely reopened in June. The country has ramped up containment strategies, including contact-tracing and targeted testing, and has also launched clinical trials of a Covid-19 vaccine.