In light of the growing Covid-19 cluster at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), a number of other hospitals in Singapore have barred entry to visitors, caregivers or accompanying persons who have visited, or have been admitted to their inpatient wards.

However, these restrictions do not apply to patients seeking treatment at the hospitals.

No entry

These restrictions were announced on the hospitals' respective Facebook pages over the weekend.

The list of hospitals who are denying entry to people include:

• Alexandra Hospital
• Changi General Hospital (CGH)
• JurongHealth Campus (Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Jurong Community Hospital)
• National University Hospital (NUH)
• KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH)
• Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH)
• Singapore General Hospital (SGH)
• Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital
• St Andrew's Community Hospital
• Yishun Community Hospital.

For CGH, KKH, KTPH and SGH, the restriction was imposed since Saturday (May 1), whereas for Alexandra Hospital, NUH and JurongHealth Campus, the restrictions took effect on May 2.

Thomson Medical said it does not allow entry for visitors who have been to TTSH inpatient wards or have family members who have done so.

Ren Ci Hospital said it is monitoring the cluster closely and will not allow entry to any visitors from Sunday until further notice.

Other private hospitals and polyclinics have asked visitors who have been to TTSH to declare to staff that they have done so.

In the meantime, affected wards in TTSH have been placed under lockdown.

No visitors will be allowed into all wards until further notice, and visitors will only be allowed for patients who are critically ill, on a case-by-case basis.

SGH and Sengkang General Hospital (SKGH) have also seen a surge in A&E patients, and the latter has urged those who are not in critical condition to seek medical attention at a GP or polyclinic.

The TTSH cluster

The nurse who tested Covid-19 positive is 46-year-old female Philippines national and is deployed at Ward 9D, a general ward.

She was among the cases reported on Apr. 28.

She developed a cough, sore throat and body aches on Apr. 27, and sought medical treatment at TTSH.

Her test result came back positive for Covid-19 infection on the same day, and she was warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

She had received her first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on Jan. 26, and the second dose on Feb. 18.

There are now currently 27 cases linked to the TTSH cluster in total, 11 of which were updated by the Ministry of Health today.

This is a developing story.

Top photo by Zhangxin Zheng and Google Maps