Singapore—The patient identified as Case 42 in Singapore, a Bangladeshi worker who first showed signs of Covid-19 more than two months ago, is still in critical condition. His wife gave birth to a baby boy on Tuesday, March 31, but he has yet to hear of this good news.

According to a Facebook post from the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) from Tuesday afternoon, both mother and child are doing well.

The MWC also said that they facilitated a video conference call between the wife and the patient’s medical team on Monday, upon her request. She had told them that she was seeking “strength from seeing her beloved before the delivery,” even though the patient is still under sedation.

But the good news is that the 39-year-old construction worker no longer has Covid-19, and in fact is no longer in the Intensive Care Unit of the country’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), according to MWC’s post. He has been transferred to another hospital.

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However, due to complications from Covid-19, his condition is still critical and requires close monitoring from his medical team.

https://www.facebook.com/mwcsg/photos/a.660129714076288/2869266446495926/?type=3&theater

According to the Bangladesh High Commission, the man already had pneumonia, as well as kidney and respiratory problems, when he fell ill with the coronavirus.

The patient’s wife expressed her thanks for the support she and her family received during this difficult time, especially to the medical team that has taken care of her husband for the past eight weeks. Fortunately, her husband’s medical care costs while he receives treatment will be shouldered by the Singaporean Government.

The patient and his wife have been married for two years, and the baby boy is their first child. The wife last saw her husband when he came home for a vacation in June 2019.

The family has received help from several places, including ItsRainingRaincoats, a social enterprise for migrant workers, which organised a donation drive in March, wherein milk, clothes and diapers were collected for the baby.

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In February, MWC sent a donation of S$10,000 to the family which had come from the organisation, Yi-Ke Innovations (where the man works), and Mini-Environment Services (operator of The Leo), the dormitory where he lived. Yi-Ke is reportedly preparing another donation of $1,800 to the family.

The patient is one of five Bangladeshi workers who tested positive for Covid-19 in Singapore in the early days of the outbreak. He first showed symptoms of Covid-19 on February 1 and visited a GP clinic on February 3. Two days later he consulted at Changi General Hospital. By February 7, he was admitted at the hospital’s intensive care unit. After he tested positive for the coronavirus the next day, he was moved to NCID.

The five patients are linked to a cluster at a worksite in Seletar and he had been living at The Leo dormitory in Kaki Bukit at the time of his diagnosis. ST reports that he has been working in Singapore for almost 10 years.

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The four other Bangladeshi workers in the Seletar cluster have recovered from Covid-19 and have been released from hospital. —/TISG

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