SINGAPORE — A 69-year-old cleaner at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) diagnosed with Covid-19 had no contact with students after developing symptoms. Neither did he have any “sustained” contact with staff, NTU said in an internal email on Sunday (March 8).

Co-workers from the same cleaning company who came into close contact with the infected man have been issued a leave of absence (LOA), said the email, a copy of which was obtained by TODAY.

The Singaporean cleaner was one of the 12 confirmed cases announced by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sunday. An NTU spokesperson confirmed the contents of the internal email and said the cleaner was designated by MOH as Case 141.

An MOH media release on Sunday stated that the cleaner was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Saturday afternoon. He lives in Jurong West Street 64.

He was a staff member of the university’s cleaning services vendor and had no recent travel history to affected countries and regions, MOH said.

He reported an onset of symptoms on March 1 and is currently warded at the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in an isolation room.

NTU said that prior to admission into the hospital, he last worked at the NTU Innovation Centre on March 3 and has been on medical leave since that date.

“The university has conducted contact tracing and has confirmed that the case did not have any contact with NTU students, or sustained contact with NTU staff in the course of his work on March 2 and March 3 mornings,” it said in the email.

NTU said that the cleaner’s duties were limited to cleaning the ground floor restrooms and external area of the NTU Innovation Centre. It added that those areas have since been “thoroughly disinfected”, but did not state when they were disinfected.

“The health and well-being of our students, employees and visitors are our foremost concern. We will continue to remind our vendors and contractors that precautionary measures should be taken, and staff who are unwell should not report to work,” NTU said.

“We will continue to keep our learning, office and residential spaces, as well as other common facilities including all lifts, lobbies and toilets, clean.”

TODAY has sought comment from NTU on the number of cleaning staff on LOA, when their leave started and how NTU intends to source for substitute cleaners.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Singapore is 150 as of 3pm on March 9, with nine in critical condition at the intensive care unit. A total of 90 cases so far have fully recovered and have been discharged.