Four wards locked down: What does it entail?

Four wards have been locked down at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) following the discovery of a Covid-19 cluster that numbers 13 patients and staff to date.

The hospital's chief executive Eugene Soh said the decision to lock down these wards depended on patient movements, or whether there was an earlier confirmed case in that ward.

The four wards are 7D, 9C, 9D and 10B.

Responding to a question at the multi-ministry task force press conference on why a 57-year-old male patient was transferred from Ward 7D to Ward 9D, even after he developed Covid-19 symptoms, the Health Ministry's director of medical services Kenneth Mak said that he was kept under observation initially in Ward 7D and was transferred once a bed became available in Ward 9D.

This happened on April 20.

He had taken a Covid-19 test two days earlier and it came back negative.

As a precautionary measure, all staff and patients in Ward 7D were tested for Covid-19, even though the patient had spent only a day there, to ensure there was no spread of infection within the ward.

So far, the tests for this ward have not yielded any positive results, Associate Professor Mak said.

Eight of the 13 Covid-19 cases in the TTSH cluster are patients, while five are staff.

Seven of the patients were admitted to Ward 9D while one had been admitted to Ward 9C, which has also been placed under lockdown.

Dr Soh said: "When a ward is locked down, there is no in-or-out movement from that ward, so there are restricted movements for both patients and staff."

He added that exceptions are made for "very essential testing", such as requiring a test in the hospital's radiology department.

But even then, "full precautions" are taken in moving these patients, and no further patients will be admitted to the ward, given the strict restrictions on entry, said Dr Soh.

He was responding to a question on what it means when the wards are locked down, and if patients who are staying there would be at risk of getting Covid-19.

There is also a dedicated group of staff looking after the patients in the wards, who will take extra precautions in caring for the patients while protecting themselves.

He added that the hospital will have to monitor them very closely to pick up any spread within the ward very quickly and contain it as soon as possible.

Close contacts of cases in the locked-down wards will be isolated, he added.

The first swab tests have been carried out within the four wards under lockdown and all have been negative so far, said Dr Soh, though he noted that they are not yet out of the "risk period" and will continue to be monitored.