Covid-19: Singapore reports third death, a 70-year-old citizen with medical history

SINGAPORE — Singapore has reported its third fatality related to the coronavirus infection, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a press release on Sunday (March 29).

The victim, a 70-year-old male Singaporean with no recent travel history to affected countries and regions, died at 12.12pm on Sunday. 

MOH had previously referred to him as Case 109. He was admitted to Singapore General Hospital (SGH) on Feb 29 and had been in the intensive care unit (ICU) since his diagnosis on March 2.

“He developed serious complications and eventually succumbed to the infection after 27 days in the ICU. He had a history of hypertension and hyperlipidaemia,” said MOH.

The man had gone to work at Fish Mart Sakuraya restaurant in West Coast Plaza before hospital admission, but had not served customers or handled food, MOH said in an earlier press release.

SGH has reached out to his family and is extending assistance to them.

Just last week, MOH announced the first two deaths of Covid-19 in Singapore.

The first was a 75-year-old Singaporean woman, Case 90, who was admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) on Feb 23 for pneumonia and was confirmed to have the disease on the same day.

The patient, who has a history of chronic heart disease and hypertension, developed serious complications and eventually succumbed to the infection at 7.52am on March 21 after 26 days in the ICU.

She was linked to the cluster at The Life Church and Missions Singapore in Paya Lebar.

The second was a 64-year-old Indonesian man, Case 212, who was admitted in critical condition to the ICU at NCID on March 13, after arriving in Singapore from Indonesia on the same day.

He was confirmed to have Covid-19 the next day.

He developed serious complications and died after nine days in the ICU on March 21 at 10.15am.

Before his arrival in Singapore, he had been hospitalised in Indonesia for pneumonia. He had a history of heart disease.