88-year-old man dies of Covid-19, 6th such death in Singapore

[SINGAPORE] A sixth patient has died from the coronavirus infection in Singapore, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The patient, an 88-year-old male Singapore permanent resident, had no recent travel history to affected countries and regions. He was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection on March 29 and was admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) a day later.

He developed serious complications and eventually died. He had a history of heart and kidney disease, cancer and diabetes.

The Straits Times understands that he was Case 855, a locally transmitted case linked to the Singapore Cricket Club cluster, which has six infections.

As of Friday night, the number of infections hit 1,114. An 86-year-old Singaporean woman, understood to be one of the people in the cluster at Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home at 1 Thomson Lane, died on Friday - Singapore's fifth such death.

The number of new imported cases has continued to be lower than locally transmitted ones prompting new elevated measures.

On Friday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that most workplaces will be closed from next Tuesday - except for those in key economic sectors and essential services such as food establishments, markets and supermarkets, clinics, hospitals, utilities, transport and key banking services.

All schools will also move to full home-based learning a day later, as Singapore puts in place a "circuit breaker" to pre-empt escalating coronavirus infections. Pre-school and student care services will also be closed, but would provide "limited services for children of parents who have to continue working".

THE STRAITS TIMES