30 new Covid-19 community cases in Singapore, including eight unlinked

[SINGAPORE] There were 40 new Covid-19 cases, including 30 in the community, as at noon on Friday (May 21), said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Of the community cases, eight are currently unlinked.

The remaining 22 are linked to previous cases. Among them, 16 had already been quarantined.

There were also 10 imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notice on arrival in Singapore, said the ministry.

Of these, eight are returning Singaporeans or permanent residents. There were no new cases in the workers' dormitories.

The new cases take Singapore's total to 61,770.

On Thursday, a 70-year-old Singaporean man linked to the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) cluster died from complications related to Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths here to 32.

The man had been hospitalised in TTSH Ward 9D on April 22 and was confirmed to have the virus on April 30.

He was not vaccinated against Covid-19 and had a history of lung cancer and atrial fibrillation. The man is the second patient in the C class ward to die from the infection.

On May 1, another patient from Ward 9D died from complications due to Covid-19 after she was confirmed to have the virus on April 28.

The 88-year-old Singaporean woman had been hospitalised there from April 14 and had a history of cancer, hypertension, congestive cardiac failure, stroke and hyperlipidaemia.

Separately, a Singapore Polytechnic (SP) student, a prison inmate, and a clinic assistant at Etern Medical Clinic in Punggol were among the 27 community cases reported on Thursday.

Of these cases, 15 had already been quarantined while six were unlinked.

Meanwhile, 17 patients were linked to previous clusters, with the Changi Airport cluster growing to 100 people.

It now includes two female students from Madrasah Al-Ma'arif Al-Islamiah, an Islamic school in Geylang, and a 63-year-old aviation security officer at Changi Airport Terminal 3.

The airport security officer's family member and household contact - a cleaner at EuHabitat - who was among the unlinked cases on Monday has also been added to the Changi Airport cluster.

In total, there were 41 cases announced on Thursday, of which 14 had been placed on stay-home notice.

Of the 240 confirmed cases in hospital, four are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, said MOH.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December 2019, has infected more than 165 million people. More than 3.43 million people have died.

THE STRAITS TIMES