SINGAPORE, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Singapore saw an annual 10.4 percent increase in the overall number of workplace injuries during the first half of the year, according to a report released by the city-state's Workplace Safety and Health Institute on Tuesday.
On the other hand, there were 26 fatal injuries resulting from workplace accidents, down from that of 31 cases during the same period last year.
The number of major injuries marginally decreased from 253 cases in first half last year to 246 from this January to June, while minor injury cases, which formed the bulk of the workplace injuries, saw an annual increase of 11 percent, from 4494 to 5001 cases during the same period, the report said in a statement.
For occupational diseases, the number of cases confirmed was 603, up from 360 in the same period last year, mainly due to an increase in the number of noise induced deafness cases.
"While the first half of the year saw a fall in the number of fatalities and major injuries, there have been a number of serious accidents recently in July and August. We are gravely concerned as similar issues are surfacing and workers are hurt in these accidents despite there being many lessons in the past," local media Channel NewsAsia quoted Ho Siong Hin, the Manpower Ministry' s WSH Commissioner as saying.
Singapore has recently seen increasing number of workplace injuries over the past two months, including 6 serious construction-related accidents which have resulted in 5 fatalities and several others injured, including the fire at East Village Hotel and the collapse of the formwork structure at the Bugis Downtown Line station, etc.
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