Singapore today reported its first two Covid-19 related deaths.
The republic’s Ministry of Health (MOH) said the first patient was a 75-year-old female Singaporean and the second case was a 64-year-old male Indonesian.
MOH said the elderly Singaporean was admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) on Feb 23 for pneumonia and was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection on the same day.
The woman, who had a history of chronic heart disease and hypertension, had been placed in the intensive care unit (ICU) since admission to NCID.
She developed serious complications and eventually succumbed to the infection after 26 days in the ICU at 7.52 am today.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian man was admitted in critical condition to the ICU at NCID on March 13, after arriving in Singapore from Indonesia on the same day and was confirmed to have Covid-19 infection on March 14.
MOH said he, who had been cared for in the ICU since March 13, developed serious complications and eventually succumbed to the infection after nine days in the ICU at 10.15 am today.
Before his arrival in Singapore on March 13, the patient had been hospitalised in Indonesia for pneumonia and had a history of heart disease, it said.
The ministry and NCID have reached out to their families and are extending assistance to them.
As at yesterday, there are a total of 385 positive cases in the republic, 131 fully recovered while 16 are in critical condition in the ICU.
On Saturday, the global death toll is approaching 11,500.
The country with the highest loss of life due to coronavirus is Italy, where 4,032 people have so far died, after eclipsing China earlier this week.
Mainland China, where the outbreak started last December, was second, with a total of 3,255 people dead.
Iran had the third-highest death toll, with 1,433.
Australia reported that the number of cases of Covid-19 rose to 1,051, with 300 people added to the total in the last 24 hours.
Morocco’s Health Ministry said the number of cases had risen to 86, including seven people who had recently been abroad.
Morocco on Friday declared a state of emergency over the outbreak.
Meanwhile, Paraguay’s Health Ministry announced on Twitter that a 69-nine-year-old man had died from the virus after treatment in an intensive care unit.
Local media reported that the total cases number of cases in the country was 18.
President Mario Abdo Benitez announced that a quarantine declared for March 10 to April 4 has been extended to April 12.