58-year-old woman dies from Covid-19 — youngest fatality so far in Singapore; 12 new clusters emerge

SINGAPORE — A 58-year-old Singaporean woman has died from Covid-19, the youngest fatality so far in the country.

She was the 15th patient to succumb to the coronavirus infection here. The other 14 who died were aged 64 to 95.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Thursday (April 30) that the woman, identified as Case 703, was diagnosed on March 26.

“Ng Teng Fong General Hospital has reached out to her family and is extending assistance to them,” the ministry said.

The woman was previously identified as an imported case by MOH, with travel history to Europe.

MOH also identified 12 new clusters of infections, including one at the Institute of Mental Health in Buangkok.

The other clusters are at 9 Benoi Crescent, 24 Benoi Place, 2 Fan Yoong Road, 10 Gul Drive, 23 Kaki Bukit Road 6, 17 Soon Lee Road, JTC Space @ Tuas (16 Tuas Avenue 1), 1 Tuas Avenue 10, 2 Tuas Avenue 10, 81 Tuas South Street 5 and 54/56 Tuas View Square.

Earlier in the day, MOH had confirmed 528 new cases of Covid-19, which brings the total number of cases here to 16,169.

Of the new cases, nine are from the community — six of them are Singaporeans or permanent residents and three 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 14 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 17 cases a day in the week before, to an average of seven a day in the past week.

“We will continue to closely monitor these numbers, as well as the cases detected through our surveillance programme,” MOH said.

The bulk of the new cases — 488 of them — are linked to foreign workers residing in dormitories, while 31 others were linked to those staying outside the dormitories.

MOH said that the main increase on Thursday continues to be for work permit holders staying in dormitories, “where we are picking up many more cases because of extensive testing”.

The ministry added that most of these workers have a mild illness and are being monitored in the community isolation facilities or general ward of hospitals.

“Three are in the intensive care unit,” it said.

UPDATE ON OTHER CASES

In all, MOH said that 1,244 people have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, including 56 discharged on Thursday.

There are still 1,708 infected persons in hospital.

Of these, most are in stable condition or improving, and 22 are in critical condition under intensive care.

MOH said that 13,202 patients are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19.

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