37 new COVID cases in Singapore, including 16 unlinked

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday (21 August) reported 37 new cases of COVID-19 in Singapore, bringing the country's total to 66,443 infections.

Of them, 32 are locally transmitted including 16 unlinked infections. Among the local cases,11 are linked to previous cases, and have already been placed on quarantine, while five are linked to previous cases and were detected through surveillance.

The ministry did not provide a breakdown of how many of them are in the community or are dormitory residents.

The remaining five cases are imported, of whom three were detected upon their arrival in Singapore, while two developed the illness during the Stay-Home Notice or isolation period.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 377 cases in the week before to 260 cases in the past week, the MOH said. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from 98 cases in the week before to 87 cases in the past week.

The seven-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 24.7 and 12.4 respectively.

1 new cluster, 2 closed

The ministry announced one new cluster, and closed two.

The new Case 68646 cluster has four cases.

There are currently 76 clusters in total, with between three and 1,155 infections.

22 require oxygen supplementation; 7 in ICU

At least 65,242 cases in Singapore, or over 99 per cent of the overall total, have fully recovered from their infection and have been discharged from the hospital.

As of Saturday, 364 cases are currently warded, most of whom are well and under observation.

There are currently 22 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation and seven in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Of those who have fallen very ill, 23 are patients above the age of 60, of whom 18 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, said the MOH.

Apart from the 47 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.

Over the last 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated who became severely ill or died is 8.8 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated is 1.7 per cent, the ministry noted.

As of Friday, about 8.55 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme. Some 4.47 million have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with some 4.2 million having completed the full vaccination regimen.

Separately, 156,114 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing (WHO EUL) have been administered as of Friday, covering 84,345 individuals.

This means that 78 per cent of the population have completed their full regimen, or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and 82 per cent have received at least one dose.

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