Singapore will be extending its partial lockdown by four weeks to June 1 in response to the recent spike of new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. Initially, the city-state's lockdown measures—which Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong calls a "circuit breaker"—were supposed to run from April 7 until May 4. This includes temporarily shutting down schools and most offices.
On April 21, Singapore recorded 1,111 new cases of the virus, bringing its total number of COVID-19 infections to 9,125. The city-state now holds the most number of reported cases in Southeast Asia.
According to Yahoo! News Singapore, the new infections mostly involve foreign migrant workers who are residing in tightly packed dormitories, where social distancing is nearly impossible.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong explained that the extended lockdown was imposed to decisively bring down the rising number of COVID-19 cases within the community.
"To protect the health of our migrant workers, we will step up the medical resources in the dorms. We will deploy more medical personnel, to make sure that anyone with fever or flu symptoms receives appropriate and timely medical treatment," the prime minister said in a televised speech.
"To our migrant workers, let me emphasize again: we will care for you, just like we care for Singaporeans. We thank you for your cooperation during this difficult period. We will look after your health, your welfare, and your livelihood."
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