Just two days after its first resident tested positive for Covid-19, 12 more patients and two staffers also were found to have the disease at Acacia Home, a welfare home for destitute persons in Admiralty.
According to the Ministry of Social and Family development (MSF) in a press release on Monday evening, these new cases were uncovered after everyone in the home was tested for the virus — a total of 167 people including 115 residents, 31 staff and 21 contractors who had been to the home to carry out essential work in the past four weeks.
The remaining 153 people tested on Sunday received negative results on Monday. Meanwhile, contact tracing for the infected individuals is ongoing.
MSF said the home has since Saturday (April 25) stopped taking in new residents. It also now requires all staff to wear full personal protection equipment, and all residents to wear surgical masks.
All staff and residents at the home now have also been placed on quarantine. The ministry did not say where staffers will serve their quarantine, but in the meantime, the home has also been cleaned and disinfected thoroughly.
Acacia Home is the second Home cluster to have emerged with more than 10 cases of Covid-19 infections.
The first of these is Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home, which was home to 11 positive cases — two of the patients who tested positive eventually passed away from complications arising from the disease.
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Top image via Siang Hang Lim on Google Maps