BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – Brunei’s daily COVID-19 case count hit 305 on Tuesday, with more infections linked to clusters at migrant worker dormitories.

It is the second time in three days the number of coronavirus cases crossed 300 after the health ministry reported a record high of 381 infections on Sunday.

Health authorities last week attributed the spike in cases to household contacts or foreign worker accommodation.

A quarter of the new infections were linked to foreign workers living in dormitories.

Another two new clusters detected on Tuesday involved the staff quarters of Mamih Café and Takaza Sdn Bhd.

Over the past five days, 11 of the 25 identified clusters were worker dormitories.

There are now 163 active clusters after three were closed in the past 24 hours, including Chung Hua Middle School Kuala Belait with 298 cases.

Among the 2,311 active cases, nine people are critically ill and 26 require close observation.

The overall COVID-19 tally stands at 9,472.

Weekly vaccination rate falls 37%

Brunei administered an average of 4,019 vaccine doses a day in the past week, a 37 percent decline from the preceding week.

The country’s inoculation drive has slowed down significantly over the last two weeks due to decreasing demand, with thousands of vaccination slots left unfilled on the BruHealth app.

However, the Indoor Stadium has opened walk-in vaccinations for citizens and permanent residents who have yet to receive their first vaccine dose.

As of Monday, 73.4 percent of the population has taken at least one COVID-19 jab while 47.2 percent completed their full vaccination regimen.

The government recently said vaccination figures could be higher than reported as the latest census suggests that Brunei’s population has decreased this year.

Brunei is pushing to get at least 80 percent of the population inoculated by the end of 2021 before it considers lifting COVID-19 restrictions.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said 42 violations of the 8pm-4am curfew were reported on Monday.

A total of 273 compound fines have been issued since the night restrictions began on October 4.