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On Saturday (Mar. 21) morning, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong confirmed the first two Covid-19 deaths in Singapore.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong uploaded a Facebook post shortly after the sad announcement was made.

PM Lee sent his deepest condolences to the family of the victims.

He added that as Singapore is seeing a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases, the country must "brace ourselves for more losses".

First Death

The first patient was a 75-year old female Singaporean.

She 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.

She developed serious complications and eventually succumbed to the infection after 26 days in the ICU on Mar. 21 at 7.52am. She has a history of chronic heart disease and hypertension.

Second Death

The second patient was a 64-year old male Indonesian national.

He developed serious complications and eventually succumbed to the infection after nine days in the ICU on 21. March at 10.15am.

Prior to his arrival in Singapore on Mar.13, he had been hospitalised in Indonesia for pneumonia and had a history of heart disease.

PM Lee: "Brace ourselves for more losses"

PM Lee noted that so far 131 of 385 cases have been discharged, with most patients gradually improving their conditions.

Lee ended off his post by saying:

"Our healthcare workers are doing their best to care for their patients...The government is doing all we can to slow the spread of the virus, but everyone needs to support and comply with the measures we have put in place. We must work together to keep ourselves, our families, and Singapore safe."

You can read his full post here:

Gan: Deeply saddened by their passing

Earlier this morning, Gan said that he was "deeply saddened by their passing", and their thoughts are with their families during this difficult time.

He said,

"We will render all necessary assistance to their families. I understand that Singaporeans will be affected by this news. But we must take courage and continue to play our part to fight this virus".

Watch him breaking the news to media here:

His full remarks are transcribed here:

"Two patients in our National Centre for Infectious Diseases have passed away this morning due to complications arising from Covid-19 infection, despite the best efforts of our medical team to care for them. Our thoughts are with their families and their loved ones during these difficult moments. I have asked NCID to render all assistance as necessary to their family members.

The first patient has an underlying history of heart diseases as well as hypertension. She developed serious complications and eventually succumbed to the disease after 26 days in the ICU. The second patient was admitted to ICU in critical condition after arriving from Indonesia. He had an underlying history of heart disease and also eventually succumbed to the disease after 9 days in the ICU. While we all know that there will be fatalities in Covid-19 patients, we are deeply saddened by their passing.

I know Singaporeans will be worried and anxious. We must take courage and not give in to our fears. We have announced a series of safe distancing measures yesterday and we must all take the necessary precautious to keep ourselves and our families safe. We must stay united, work together, support one another, look out for each other. This way by staying together we will be able to prevail and overcome the Covid-19 infection."

Inevitable that S'pore will experience a fatality

In a press conference two weeks ago (March 6), Gan, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force set up to combat the spread of the virus, said that it is inevitable that Singapore will see a fatality from Covid-19.

"So far our healthcare workers are working very hard and trying their best to support them and hopefully they can recover. But it's inevitable that at some point in time, we will see fatalities from Covid-19, as we've seen all around the world," he said.

Top image from MCI.