SINGAPORE, May 3  — Among the new community cases of Covid-19 that were reported in Singapore on Monday (May 3), three were staff members of Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) in their 20s, including a nurse who had received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. 

Another five of the new cases were TTSH patients, including a 94-year-old woman, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its latest update. 

With these new cases, the TTSH cluster, which began when a nurse at the hospital tested positive for the coronavirus last Wednesday, has now grown to 35 cases.

There were two other cases of local transmission recorded on Monday, both of whom were linked to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer cluster. As they had been identified as close contacts of the ICA officer who was confirmed to have Covid-19 on April 27, they have been in quarantine since then.

There were also seven imported cases, who had been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore.

TTSH workers

The three TTSH staff members among the new community cases had been tested as part of the hospital’s testing of all employees.

They were:

A 26-year-old female Vietnamese nurse at Ward 9D, who had received her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Jan 18 and the second dose on Feb 8. She was tested for Covid-19 on April 28 and her result was negative. She was placed in quarantine on April 29 and taken to a dedicated facility the next day. On May 2, she was tested again for Covid-19 even though she had no symptoms and, this time, her test came back positive. 

A 22-year-old Malaysian woman employed by UEMS Solutions and deployed as a porter at TTSH. She was tested for Covid-19 on April 28 and her result was negative. She developed a sore throat the next day but did not seek medical treatment and later had a fever and body aches on May 1. The next day, she sought treatment at TTSH’s emergency department and her test result came back positive for Covid-19.

A 25-year-old Singaporean woman who works as a nurse at TTSH’s emergency department. She was tested for Covid-19 on April 30 and her result was negative. She developed a fever and sore throat on May 2 and sought treatment at TTSH’s emergency department. She was confirmed to have the virus the same day. 

TTSH patients

The five TTSH patients among the new cases are Singaporeans. All of them had been transferred to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) for isolation on April 28 and then tested for Covid-19. 

They were: