19 of 26 new COVID cases in S'pore local; 8 linked to KTV cluster
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday (13 July) confirmed 26 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, taking the country's total case count to 62,744.
Nineteen of them are domestic cases in the community, of whom eight – out of 15 linked infections – belong to an emerging KTV lounges/clubs cluster.
This comes three days after authorities announced that there were no new domestic infections on Saturday – the first time in 76 days. Tuesday also marks the highest number of daily local infections reported since 17 June's 20 cases.
The remaining seven cases are imported, of whom five were detected upon their arrival here, while two developed the illness during their stay-home notice or isolation period.
A cluster announced on Monday – "Case 64693" – has been removed and subsumed into the new KTV lounges/clubs cluster, bringing the total number of active clusters in Singapore to 22. The cluster is currently linked to 12 cases.
The remaining seven – of 15 linked infections on Tuesday – are linked to the "Case 64697" cluster, which was also announced on Monday. The cluster is now linked to 11 cases.
The largest active cluster in Singapore remains at the 115 Bukit Merah View market, linked to 94 cases.
The MOH said that the number of new cases in the community has increased from 24 in the week before to 37 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from five in the week before to 12 in the past week.
It added that the seven-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 3.6 and 1.7 respectively.
The MOH also on Tuesday announced that three KTV lounges will be closed for two weeks till 27 July after it found "likely ongoing" COVID-19 transmission linked to the premises.
The three venues – Club Dolce at Balestier Point, WU Bistro at Golden Mile Complex, and Club De Zara at Textile Centre – will be closed to enable deep cleaning and break any potential chain of transmission, MOH said on Tuesday.
Special testing operations will be conducted for all staff members at both WU Bistro and Club De Zara.
The MOH said it will extend free COVID-19 testing to members of the public who had visited the three outlets between 29 June and 13 July or similar KTV lounges or clubs operating as F&B outlets.
Free COVID-19 testing will also be extended to those who have interacted with Vietnamese social hostesses in any setting between 29 June and Tuesday.
This comes a day after the ministry announced similar testing measures for staff members and visitors of Club Dolce, Supreme KTV at Far East Shopping Centre, and Empress KTV at Tanglin Shopping Centre.
UPDATE: Emerging KTV lounges cluster in Singapore linked to 12 COVID cases https://t.co/BgTvvp6xoY pic.twitter.com/b6kDZaYS0I
— Yahoo Singapore (@YahooSG) July 13, 2021
7 require oxygen supplementation; 2 in ICU
Over 62,000 cases in Singapore, or over 99 per cent of the total tally, have fully recovered from their infection.
As of Tuesday, 94 cases are currently warded in the hospital, most of whom are well and under observation. There are currently seven cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation, and two in critical condition – both aged above 60 – in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Apart from the 36 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.
"There is continuing evidence that vaccination helps to prevent serious disease when one gets infected. Over the last 28 days, 22 local cases required oxygen supplementation, were admitted to ICU, or passed away," said the MOH.
Of the 22 cases, 18 are unvaccinated, four are partially vaccinated and none is fully vaccinated.
As of Monday, 6.38 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme. Some 4.02 million have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Of some 2.37 million who have completed the full vaccination regimen, 12,170 are individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 and have received at least one dose while the remaining are those who have received two doses.
As per the MOH guidelines, recovered individuals – who are likely to have a strong immune response against COVID-19 within the first six months after their infection – are recommended to receive a single dose of vaccine to further boost their immunity against the disease.
Those who have received the Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine locally are not included in Singapore's national vaccination numbers. As of 3 July, 17,296 people here have received one dose of the Chinese-made vaccine.
The MOH last Monday said that it is investigating an incident involving a 16-year-old boy who suffered a cardiac arrest after lifting weights six days into receiving his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
The boy remains in critical condition at the National University Hospital's ICU.
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