45-year-old among 17 more COVID deaths, 2,553 new cases in Singapore

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sunday (7 November) confirmed 2,553 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore – bringing the country's total case count to 218,333 – as well as 17 deaths due to the disease.

Sunday marks the 49th day in a row with fatalities from COVID-19 reported in Singapore, with 81 people having succumbed to it in the first week of this month.

The 481st to 497th fatalities here were aged between 45 and 89. All of them had various underlying medical conditions, except for an 85-year-old vaccinated case who had no known medical conditions, said the MOH.

Among Sunday's new cases, 2,548 are local: 2,343 are in the community while 205 are dormitory residents. The remaining five cases are imported.

Among the community cases are 425 cases who are aged 60 years and above, the MOH said.

The ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before is 0.81, down from Saturday's 0.83. This is the fifth day in a row that the figure was reported to be below one by authorities.

Eight active COVID-19 clusters are being closely monitored in Singapore, of which all but two are nursing or welfare homes.

Of the listed clusters, the highest number of nine new cases was added to the cluster at Acacia Home. The cluster has 41 cases – 39 patients and two staff members.

Seven new cases were each added to the clusters at MWS Nursing Home's Yew Tee branch and the Institute of Mental Health, totalling 10 and 389 infections, respectively. Of the latter, the largest of the eight clusters, 364 are patients while 25 are staff members.

Two new cases were also each added to clusters at Jenaris Home @ Pelangi Village and Surya Home, totalling 29 and 16 infections, respectively.

296 require oxygen supplementation; 134 in ICU

A total of 2,926 cases were discharged on Sunday, of whom 420 are patients aged 60 and above, said the MOH.

Currently, 1,654 cases are warded in hospital. Over the last 28 days, of the 91,217 infected individuals, 98.7 per cent had no or mild symptoms.

There are currently 296 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation.

A total of 134 cases are in the intensive care unit (ICU) – 70 are unstable and under close monitoring to prevent further deterioration, while 64 are critically ill and intubated.

The current overall ICU utilisation rate is 69.9 per cent, down from Saturday's 72.8 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 5.1 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 42.3, respectively. The number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated seniors who died are 0.3 and 9.0, respectively, said the MOH.

Apart from the 497 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 Saturday, 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 18 per cent have received their booster shots.

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