Yahoo News Bangladeshi man infected with COVID-19 in Singapore in 'very critical' condition: High Commission
SINGAPORE — A Bangladeshi man infected with coronavirus here is in "very critical” condition, the Bangladesh High Commission in Singapore confirmed on Friday (21 February).
In a report by local news site CNA, the High Commission said that the COVID-19 patient, who already had respiratory and kidney problems as well as pneumonia prior to the infection, has been in the intensive care unit (ICU) for 14 days as of Thursday.
This makes him one of four patients currently in critical condition in the ICU, as of Thursday.
The High Commission also said that the man’s family has been informed and identified him as the 42nd case of the virus in Singapore.
Multiple attempts to contact the High Commission were made by Yahoo News Singapore, but it did not respond.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) had previously described the patient as a 39-year-old Bangladeshi national with no recent travel history to China who first reported developing symptoms on 1 February.
The man went to a general practitioner clinic two days later, before going to Changi General Hospital (CGH) on 5 February.
On 7 February, he went for a follow-up appointment at Bedok polyclinic and was admitted to the CGH’s ICU on the same day.
He tested positive for the virus on the afternoon of 8 February and was transferred to the National Centre of Infectious Diseases (NCID), where he is currently warded in an isolation room.
Before he was admitted to the hospital, the man went to Mustafa Centre along Syed Alwi Road and stayed at The Leo dormitory along Kaki Bukit Road.
The man is the first of five cases – all Bangladeshi nationals – linked to a construction site at Seletar Aerospace Heights, one of five identified clusters in Singapore. His four compatriots are also warded in the NCID.
According to a news report by The Daily Star, a daily English-language newspaper in Bangladesh, on Wednesday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan had updated his Bangladeshi counterpart on the five cases.
The newspaper quoted the country’s foreign minister AK Abdul Momen who said that the 39-year-old patient in critical condition has not been responding to the medicine given to him.
Five other Bangladeshi nationals, who are not infected but had stayed with those who are, have been quarantined there, Momen added.
To date, 37 of 85 cases in Singapore have recovered from the virus and been discharged from the hospital. Most of the remaining patients are stable or improving, said the MOH on Thursday.
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