COVID-19: TTSH stops admitting new patients from 4 May

SINGAPORE — The hospital at the heart of a growing cluster of COVID-19 infections involving patients and staff on Tuesday (4 May) said that it will cease admitting new patients.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday morning, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) said, "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 NCID (National Centre for Infectious Diseases) during this period."

The hospital added that it will continue to review its measures with the health ministry and take all necessary actions for the safety of patients and staff.

The cluster was formed after a nurse at a general ward sought treatment for COVID-19 symptoms last Tuesday and tested positive for the virus the same day.

As more cases were detected, the hospital moved to lock down four wards and by Thursday, visitors were banned from all its wards.

As of Monday, there are 35 cases linked to the TTSH cluster.

There has been one fatality in the cluster: An 88-year-old patient who was at an affected ward died due to complications from COVID-19 infection on Saturday.

The health ministry on Monday said that it was working with other public and private hospitals to increase their capacity.

All ambulance cases will be diverted to other public and private hospitals, it said.

To conserve healthcare resources, all hospitals have also been asked by the ministry to defer non-urgent surgeries and admissions, as well as non-urgent specialist outpatient appointments until further notice.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 10 cases in the week before to 60 cases in the past week, the ministry said on Monday.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from four cases in the week before to 10 cases in the past week.

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