SINGAPORE, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 373 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 33,249.
Of the new cases, 99 percent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.
A total of 1,018 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 18,294 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, the ministry said.
The ministry also said Singapore's Multi-Ministry Taskforce, after studying and evaluating the latest local and international clinical and scientific evidence which show that viable virus was not found in COVID-19 patients after the second week of illness despite the persistence of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection of ribonucleic acid (RNA), decided to revise the discharge criteria for COVID-19 patients in the country.
With immediate effect, all COVID-19 patients who are assessed to be clinically well by Day 21 of onset of illness can be discharged without the need for further PCR tests. This revised approach will allow recovered patients who are well and no longer infectious to return to the community in a timely manner, according to the ministry. Enditem
