Coronavirus: Critically ill foreign worker yet to know he has become a father
He is the father of a baby boy, but the 39-year-old construction worker, who was infected with the coronavirus in early February, does not know it yet.
The Bangladeshi, identified as Singapore's Case 42, was admitted to hospital nearly two months ago, and continues to be sedated and in critical condition.
He was cleared of the disease and transferred out of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases a few days ago, the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC) said in a Facebook post yesterday. He remains in intensive care because of complications brought on by Covid-19.
The Straits Times understands he is currently warded at another government hospital.
The Bangladesh High Commission had earlier said that the worker suffered from respiratory and kidney problems and pneumonia before he was infected with the virus.
Said the MWC in the post: "His condition remains critical, but we are encouraged by this latest development and continue to ask for everyone's prayers."
The baby was born in Bangladesh on Monday. The MWC said both mother and child are healthy. It also said the woman got to see her husband via a video call a day before giving birth.
In a separate Facebook post, Ms Dipa Swaminathan, the founder of ItsRainingRaincoats, a social enterprise for migrant workers, posted a photo of Case 42's newborn baby boy.
She has been in daily contact with his wife, who lives in central Bangladesh, and had last month organised a donation drive, collecting items such as new clothes, diapers and milk bottles for the family.
She said the mother and child are doing well and the mother had given her permission to post the photo. "Please join us to seek blessings for this little boy and pray he meets his father soon happy and healthy," she wrote.
In an interview with ST in February, the wife said she had last seen her husband in June last year. They have been married for two years and the baby is their first child.
Her husband, who has been working here for close to a decade, was the first of five Bangladeshi work-pass holders in a cluster of infections at a Seletar work site. The other four workers have been discharged.
A spokesman for the worker's employer, Yi-Ke Innovations, said it was planning to donate an additional $1,800 to his family to help with expenses.
In February, the company, along with the MWC and Mini Environment Service, which operates the dormitory where the worker stayed, donated $10,000 to the family.
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