S'pore's Covid-19 death toll rises to 16 after 60-year-old man becomes latest fatality; 7 new clusters identified

SINGAPORE — A 60-year-old Singaporean man died from Covid-19 on Friday (May 1). 

He was the 16th patient to succumb to the coronavirus infection here. 

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the man, identified as Case 2728, was diagnosed on April 13 and had a history of hypertension and hyperlipidaemia. 

The National Centre for Infectious Diseases has reached out to his family and is extending assistance to them.  

MOH also identified seven new clusters of infections.

The other clusters are at Joo Koon Lodge, Tuas South Incineration Plant, 19 Kian Teck Road, 12 Tuas Place, 15 Tuas View Square, 20 Sungei Kadut Avenue and 148 Woodlands Industrial Park E5. 

Earlier in the day, MOH had confirmed 932 new cases of Covid-19, which brings the total number of cases here to 17,101.

Of the new cases, 11 are from the community — five of them are Singaporeans or permanent residents and six are work pass holders.

MOH said that the number of new cases in the community has declined, from an average of 25 cases a day in the week before, to an average of 12 a day in the past week.

It added that the number of cases with unknown sources of infection in the community has also decreased, from an average of 16 a day in the week before, to an average of six a day in the past week.

The bulk of the new cases —905 of them — are linked to foreign workers residing in the dormitories, while 16 cases were linked to those staying outside the dormitories.

MOH said that it has continued to pick up many more cases among foreign workers residing in dormitories, including in factory-converted dormitories, as a result of testing. 

Of the new cases, 70 per cent are linked to known clusters while the rest are pending contact tracing. 

MOH said it was also closing the SingPost Centre cluster as no more cases have been linked to it for the past 28 days, or two incubation cycles. 

UPDATE ON OTHER CASES

In all, MOH said that 1,268 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, including 24 discharged on Friday.

There are still 1,764 infected persons in the hospitals.

Of these, most are in stable condition or improving and 23 are in critical condition under intensive care.

MOH said 14,053 patients are isolated and cared for at community isolation facilities. 

These individuals have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.