TTSH COVID-19 cluster: 5 discharged patients, 3 visitors among 11 more to test positive

SINGAPORE: Five discharged patients who had been warded at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and three visitors are among the 11 new COVID-19 cases linked to the cluster there.

Another two cases are patients, while the remaining case is a physiotherapist, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sunday (May 2). 

All the new cases are linked to Ward 9D.

The TTSH cluster, Singapore’s first hospital COVID-19 cluster, has grown to 27 cases since a nurse who works in Ward 9D tested positive for the virus on Apr 27. 

MOH said the hospital completed the swabbing of all inpatients in its main wards on Apr 30 and the results are all negative.

All 12,000 staff members will also be tested. About 7,000 employees have been swabbed and priority will be given to swab staff members working in clinical areas over the next few days.

READ: 14 new community COVID-19 cases in Singapore, including 11 linked to Tan Tock Seng Hospital cluster

FIVE DISCHARGED PATIENTS

Five discharged patients who had been warded in Ward 9D were among the new cases reported on Sunday.

All Singaporeans, they were placed in quarantine on Apr 29 and tested for COVID-19 on Apr 30. They tested positive a day later. 

Case 62713 is a 65-year-old woman who was warded from Apr 21 to Apr 25. She developed a fever on Apr 30 but did not report her symptom, said MOH.

Case 62714 is a 60-year-old woman who was warded from Apr 20 to Apr 26. She was swabbed during her hospital stay and tested negative twice on Apr 20 and Apr 21.

Case 62717 is an 89-year-old woman who was warded from Apr 7 to Apr 21.

Case 62723 is an 84-year-old man who was warded from Apr 20 to Apr 22. He is also the husband of Case 62680, who tested positive on Apr 30. On May 1, he developed a fever and shortness of breath and tested positive for COVID-19. 

Case 62724 is a 79-year-old man who was warded from Apr 21 to Apr 26.

READ: NEX, Waterway Point, AMK Hub among places visited by TTSH COVID-19 cases

THREE VISITORS

Three cases were visitors to TTSH Ward 9D between Apr 18 and Apr 28. They were placed in quarantine before they tested positive for COVID-19. All three are Singaporeans who were visiting family members in the ward.

Case 62715 is a 50-year-old woman who is a family member of Case 62573, an 88-year-old woman who was warded from Apr 14 to Apr 28. The 88-year-old was confirmed to have COVID-19 on Apr 28, and died from complications due to the disease on May 1.

On Apr 29, the 50-year-old woman developed a cough and a sore throat but did not seek medical treatment, said MOH.

After she was identified as a close contact of Case 62573, she was quarantined, but did not report her symptoms. She tested positive for COVID-19 on May 1.

READ: TTSH cluster: 88-year-old woman dies from COVID-19 complications

Two family members who had visited a discharged patient (Case 62714) while she was in Ward 9D have tested positive.

Case 62721, a 25-year-old woman, and Case 62722, a 58-year-old man, were identified as close contacts and placed in quarantine. Both were tested on Apr 30 and their test results came back positive a day later.

TWO PATIENTS, A PHYSIOTHERAPIST

Two cases are patients who were in Ward 9D when Case 62541, a 46-year-old Filipino nurse, was confirmed to have COVID-19. Both patients are Singaporean.

Case 62732 is a 98-year-old woman who was warded from Apr 27 to Apr 29. She tested negative for COVID-19 on Apr 28. A day later, she was transferred to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and swabbed again on Apr 30. She was confirmed to have the coronavirus on May 1.

The other patient, a 90-year-old woman, was warded from Apr 26 to Apr 28. She tested negative for COVID-19 on Apr 28, and was transferred to NCID on the same day. She was tested again on Apr 30 and confirmed to have the disease on May 1. On May 2, she developed a fever.

The remaining case linked to TTSH on Sunday is a 27-year-old Malaysian (Case 62731) who works as a physiotherapist at Ward 9D. On Apr 29, she was placed in quarantine and tested a day later.

On Apr 30, she developed a runny nose and reported her symptom on May 1 – the same day her test result came back positive for COVID-19.

“Epidemiological investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases,” said MOH.

“We will also conduct serological tests for the close contacts to determine if the cases could have been infected by them.”

The TTSH cluster is Singapore’s first in a hospital and currently the country’s largest of nine active clusters.

Since a nurse first tested positive for the virus on Apr 27, four hospital wards have been locked down and close contacts of those infected, including patients, visitors and staff members who have been in the affected wards have been quarantined.

Singapore reported 39 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday. 

Besides the 11 people linked to the TTSH cluster, there are three other community cases and 25 imported cases. There were no new cases in the dormitories.

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