S'porean man flown here from Indonesia for Covid-19 treatment dies

A 64-year-old Singaporean man died from Covid-19 complications on Friday after he had contracted the coronavirus while living in Indonesia, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday.

The man had been living in Indonesia from March 17 last year and had a history of hyperlipidaemia, or abnormally high levels of fats in his blood. He first tested positive for Covid-19 on Jan 26 while in Indonesia and was hospitalised there the next day.

He was then medically evacuated to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) in Singapore for treatment on Jan 29.

A test taken on Jan 30 came back positive for the virus.

As he was already an overseas registered case, he was not included in Singapore's Covid-19 case count, MOH said. NCID has contacted the man's family and is extending assistance to them.

As at noon yesterday, there were 12 new coronavirus cases confirmed here, taking Singapore's total to 59,925. All were imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices or isolated on arrival here.

There were no new cases in the community or in workers' dormitories.

The new imported cases comprised two Singaporeans who returned from the United Arab Emirates and the United States, two dependant's pass holders who arrived from India and Myanmar, three work pass holders from Brazil, India and the Netherlands, and five work permit holders from India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Four of the work permit holders are foreign domestic workers.

Of the 12 new cases, 11 were asymptomatic and were detected through proactive screening and surveillance, while one, a 40-year-old female work permit holder from India, was symptomatic.

She started to develop symptoms on Thursday and tested positive on Friday.

  • Update on cases

  • New cases: 12

    Imported: 12 (2 Singaporeans, 2 dependant's pass holders, 3 work pass holders, 5 work permit holders)

    In community: 0

    In dormitories: 0

    New community cases in the past week: 4 (2 unlinked cases)

    Active cases: 80

    In hospitals: 15 (1 in ICU)

    In community facilities: 65

    Deaths: 29

    Patients with Covid-19 who died from other causes: 15

    Total discharged: 59,801

    Discharged yesterday: 13

    TOTAL CASES: 59,925

Meanwhile, 13 more cases have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, and a total of 59,801 patients here have fully recovered from the disease.

Fifteen patients remain in hospital, including one in critical condition, while 65 are recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 29 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Globally, the virus outbreak, which began in December 2019, has infected more than 114 million people. Over 2½ million have died.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on February 28, 2021, with the headline S'porean man flown here from Indonesia for Covid-19 treatment dies. Subscribe