Two patients in Singapore died from COVID-19 on Saturday morning  due to complications, the first deaths the republic has seen, the Straits Times reported.

It said a 75-year-old Singaporean woman with a history of chronic heart disease and hypertension died at 7.52am. She was linked to the cluster at The Life Church and Missions Singapore.

She had been admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) on Feb 23 for pneumonia and was confirmed to have Covid-19 the same day.

She had been in the intensive care unit since and developed serious complications. She died after 26 days in ICU, a Health Ministry statement said.

The paper said the second patient is a 64-year-old Indonesian national who was admitted in critical condition to intensive care at NCID on March 13, after arriving in Singapore from Indonesia the same day. He was confirmed to have the virus the next day.

Prior to his arrival, the patient had been hospitalised in Indonesia for pneumonia and had a history of heart disease, according to the Straits Times.