Case 53, the last COVID-19 patient linked to the Grace Assembly of God cluster, has been discharged.

In a press released issued yesterday night (March 14), the Ministry of Health announced that another eight people have recovered and been discharged from hospital.

In Singapore, 105 patients have fully recovered from the infection. 107 remain hospitalised, with 14 of them in critical condition.

Case 53 is a 54-year-old male professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) with no recent travel history to China.

He reported onset of symptoms on February 10 and went to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) on February 12 where he was immediately isolated. Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection that same afternoon.

In total, there have been 23 confirmed cases linked to Grace Assembly. Out of the 23 cases, 17 were either staff or members, including their Senior Pastor, Rev Dr Wilson Teo. The other six were related to one of the cases.

Pastor Wilson was discharged from the NCID after 10 days and preached last weekend via livestream, kickstarting a sermon series titled “Overcomer” .

Grace Assembly was originally planning to resume church services this weekend, after suspending activities for more than a month.

However, following MOH’s new advisory on Friday (March 13) limiting attendance at religious gatherings at below 250 participants, the church has decided to continue suspending all church services and activities until further notice.

A statement from the church said: “In view of the current situation, the most loving thing for Grace Assembly to do is to consider the needs of the greater community at large before our own.

“As our church was one of the biggest COVID-19 clusters, we take a serious view on exercising social responsibility and doing our part to prevent further community spread.”

In an online sermon delivered today (March 15), Pastor Wilson said that “God is deconstructing what we know of… church, and bringing us back to what the early church was like in Acts.”

“I’m disappointed but not disheartened (that we cannot resume our physical services), He is doing a powerful work… this is a journey we’ve never been on before but we know that the Lord is leading us.”

In a nationally televised message on Thursday (March 12), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong emphasised that there are no plans to raise the risk assessment level to DORSCON Red. 

Additonal reporting by Samantha Loh.