use strict;
my $str = 'covid19 1st case
covid19 2d case
covid19 1std 1st case';
my $regex = qr/^(.*?)\s*(1st|2d)($|\W).*/mp;
my $subst = '\\1';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html