SINGAPORE: A 67-year-old Singaporean man has died from complications due to COVID-19, bringing the country’s total number of fatalities from the disease to 22.
The man, known as case 1516, had a a history of ischaemic heart disease, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia.
He was confirmed to have COVID-19 on Apr 7 and died on May 15.
“Sengkang General Hospital has reached out to his family and is extending assistance to them,” said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday (May 16).
According to MOH’s summary of confirmed cases, the man was listed as a local unlinked case on Apr 8.
READ: 465 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, one more death reported
Most of Singapore’s coronavirus-related deaths are elderly cases. The youngest patient here to die from the disease is a 58-year-old Singaporean woman who was declared free of the virus before her death.
Singapore confirmed 465 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, with the vast majority still work permit holders living in dormitories.
Among the five new cases reported in the local community, four are Singaporeans and one is a work pass holder.
Two of the Singaporeans work at migrant worker dormitories. One of them is a 31-year-old dormitory inspector. It was not stated where he worked.
The other, a 54-year-old man, works at Cochrane Lodge II. The remaining two Singaporean cases are listed as his household contacts. Together, the three cases are linked to the cluster at Cochrane Lodge II, located at 49 Admiralty Road West, which has 387 confirmed cases currently.
The number of new cases in the community has gone down, from an average of nine cases per day in the week before to an average of three per day in the past week, said MOH.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of three cases per day to an average of one cases per day, the ministry added.
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As the number of community cases goes down to single digits, authorities have been easing some “circuit breaker” restrictions, such as allowing more businesses to reopen.
However, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong cautioned on Friday that the measures need to be lifted “carefully and slowly”, as the number of COVID-19 community cases is “likely” to increase as some of the measures are rolled back.
“Because if we are not careful, the number of cases will spike up, and you may have big clusters forming again,” he said.
“We hope that if we do it carefully and do it right, the number, even as it goes up, it will continue to go up slowly, and it will continue to remain under control and we will be able to step up our contact tracing, our quarantine efforts to minimise the risk of transmission in the community, and minimise the risk of large clusters being formed.”
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