Over 25,000 tested as part of efforts to detect cases linked to TTSH Covid-19 cluster: Gan Kim Yong
SINGAPORE - As at Monday (May 10), close to 12,500 people have been tested as part of special testing operations carried out to detect any cases linked to the Tan Tock Seng Hopsital (TTSH) cluster. Additionally, 12,000 TTSH staff and 1,000 patients, as well as close to 2,500 individuals who have been quarantined, have also been tested, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said in Parliament on Tuesday. Giving an update on the cluster, Mr Gan stressed that though the first detected case of the cluster was a staff nurse who developed symptoms on April 28 and dutifully reported them, this does not mean that she was the first confirmed case and had brought Covid-19 into the wards. "Her responsible act enabled us to pick up the cluster at TTSH," said Mr Gan, adding that investigations are still ongoing. Of the 43 cases in the TTSH cluster, seven staff and two patients had received full doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, said Mr Gan, who is co-chair of the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19. "They were all either asymptomatic, or only exhibited mild symptoms, and none of them required oxygen support," he noted. Of the remaining 34 who were not fully vaccinated, six required oxygen, two are ...
A total of 26 public places cleaned after visits by TTSH Covid-19 cluster patients
SINGAPORE - A total of 26 public places visited by Covid-19 patients linked to the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) cluster have undergone deep cleaning and disinfection. Officers from the National Environment Agency (NEA) were deployed to monitor the cleaning and disinfection works to ensure that they were done according to NEA guidelines, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment said in a statement on Tuesday (May 4). The statement also said that four food and beverage outlets have been ordered to close following stepped-up enforcement checks by the authorities over the weekend. These are Club Peaches, Alive @ SG Pub, Tangmen Restaurant and Club Empire. All the establishments except Club Empire are repeat offenders, and all four are located in Orchard Road. This is the second time that the three repeat offenders have had to close. All had breached Covid-19 rules such as allowing customers to intermingle and serving alcohol after 10.30pm. Eleven individuals were fined over the weekend for breaching measures at F&B outlets. Nine of them committed their offences at Club Peaches. The remaining two were fined $300 each for not wearing a mask at Tekka Centre despite multiple war...
TTSH stops admitting new patients in wake of growing Covid-19 cluster
SINGAPORE - Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) has stopped admitting new patients from Tuesday (May 4). The hospital is fighting to contain a growing Covid-19 cluster with 35 linked patients as of Monday night. On Monday, the Ministry of Health said that other hospitals - both public and private - would be helping to take on the load as patients are diverted from TTSH. MOH has also asked all hospitals to defer non-urgent surgical operations and admissions, as well as non-urgent specialist outpatient clinic appointments, until further notice. TTSH said in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning that those requiring urgent care should visit a GP or the nearest care facility. "We seek your kind understanding that this will allow us to focus on containing this Covid-19 hospital cluster, conserve our manpower and continue supporting the pandemic response at our National Centre for Infectious Diseases during this period," it said. The hospital added that it would continue to review its measures with the Ministry and take all necessary actions for the safety of its patients and staff. The TTSH cluster formed last week after a nurse at the hospital's ward 9D was confirmed to have Covid-19 on April 2...
No point in Covid-19 rules if hospital visitors allowed to take masks off for food or drinks
SINGAPORE - As the number of Covid-19 cases in the community surged over the past week, at least one public hospital has been lax with regard to visitors to its wards. About one in four of them were spending their entire time in a ward without wearing a mask. I can speak only of one hospital because that was what I observed on more than one visit to several of its wards over the weekend. But the reaction of the staff was even more surprising than seeing maskless visitors. I asked a ward nurse why visitors were allowed to remove their masks. She replied that it was because they were eating, but was rather exasperated when I pointed to three people nearby who were clearly not. She then said the same rules that applied to restaurants extended to hospital wards. This begged the question - why were visitors even allowed to eat in the wards? Given the Covid-19 pandemic, hospitals had restricted the number of visitors to two per patient. But letting them spend time in a ward without a mask on - and some were actually walking around the ward without one on - defeats the purpose of the restriction. I noticed a young man had a small bag of potato crisps, occasionally snacking on it. He was i...