Over half of 98 new COVID cases in Singapore linked to North Coast Lodge dorm

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday (23 August) confirmed 98 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, taking the country's total case count to 66,576.

The ministry also announced the city-state's 50th coronavirus-related fatality, an unvaccinated 86-year-old Singaporean woman. Altogether, 13 in Singapore have succumbed to COVID-19 this month.

Of the 98 new cases, 94 are locally transmitted infections, including 59 linked to the North Coast Lodge dormitory who are mostly asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.

The dorm cases were detected through testing operations conducted from Saturday after three residents tested positive for COVID-19 during rostered routine testing on the same day, said the MOH.

In total, the cluster at North Coast Lodge has 62 cases. It was first announced on Sunday as a new cluster named after case 68799.

"So far, about 2,200 workers have been swabbed, and testing for the rest of the 3,200 residents is ongoing. As a precautionary measure, all residents at the dormitory have been placed on movement restriction order," the ministry added.

Of the remaining local cases, 19 are unlinked. Among them are two patients above the age of 70 who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, and are at risk of serious illness, said the MOH.

There are four imported cases, two of whom were detected upon their arrival in Singapore, while two developed symptoms during their stay-home notice or isolation period.

Two COVID-19 clusters have closed, bringing the total number of active clusters here to 70.

Two new cases were added to the cluster at My First Skool at 54 Chin Swee Road, now linked to 40 infections. One new case was added to the cluster linked to the FairPrice outlet at Kallang Bahru, now linked to six infections.

No new cases were added to Singapore's largest cluster at the Jurong Fishery Port, linked to 1,155 cases, as well as the second-largest cluster – linked to various KTVs – which has 253 cases.

The MOH noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 331 in the week before to 240 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 83 in the week before to 101 in the past week.

The ministry added that the seven-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 19.9 and 14.4 respectively.

22 require oxygen supplementation; 7 in ICU

At least 65,601 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 Monday, 336 cases are currently warded, most of whom are well and under observation.

There are currently 21 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, 22 are patients above the age of 60, of whom 18 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, said the MOH.

Apart from the 50 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 Sunday, about 8.59 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme. Some 4.48 million have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with some 4.24 million having completed the full vaccination regimen.

Separately, 159,438 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing (WHO EUL) have been administered as of Sunday, covering 84,982 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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