35-year-old among 14 more COVID deaths in Singapore; 3,099 new cases

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (12 November) confirmed 3,099 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore – bringing the country's total case count to 233,176 – as well as 14 deaths due to the disease.

Friday marks the first time in ten days that the ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before – or the weekly infection growth rate – is reported to be above one.

The ratio "increased due to the relatively low number of cases during the Deepavali public holiday last week", said the MOH of the 1.04 figure on Friday, up from 0.87 a day before.

It is also the 54th day in a row with fatalities from COVID-19 reported in Singapore, with 146 people having succumbed to it so far this month.

The 549th to 562nd fatalities here were aged between 35 and 102. All, except for an unvaccinated case, had various underlying medical conditions.

The 35-year-old had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and had multiple comorbidities, said the MOH, but did not specify what they were.

Among the new cases, 3093 are local – 2,965 are in the community while 128 are dormitory residents. The remaining six cases are imported. Among those in the community, 479 cases are aged 60 years and above, the MOH said.

Four active COVID-19 clusters are being closely monitored in Singapore, of which two are nursing homes.

Of the listed clusters, the highest number of three new cases were each added to clusters at Safari House Preschool's Toa Payoh branch, the NTUC Health Nursing Home's Geylang East branch, and Surya Home.

The clusters have 11, 23, and 23 cases, respectively. The cluster at the Institute of Mental Health remains the largest of the four with 412 cases – 385 patients and 27 staff members.

280 require oxygen supplementation; 106 in ICU

A total of 2,979 cases were discharged on Friday, of whom 456 are patients aged 60 and above, said the MOH.

Currently, 1,616 cases are warded in hospital. Over the last 28 days, of the 91,231 infected individuals, 98.7 per cent had no or mild symptoms.

There are currently 280 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation.

A total of 106 cases are in the intensive care unit (ICU) – 31 are unstable and under close monitoring to prevent further deterioration, while 75 are critically ill and intubated.

The current overall ICU utilisation rate is 67.0 per cent, down from Thursday's 68.9 per cent.

The MOH noted that over the past seven days, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who are critically ill in the ICU are at 0.5 and 5.4 per 100,000 population, respectively.

Over the same period, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who died are 0.1 and 0.9 per 100,000 population, respectively, it added.

Among those aged 60 and above, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who are critically ill in the ICU are 1.8 and 47.6, respectively. The number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated seniors who died are 0.4 and 9.3, respectively, said the MOH.

Apart from the 562 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.

As of Thursday, 85 per cent of the population have completed their full regimen or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, 86 per cent have received at least one dose and 19 per cent have received their booster shots.

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