35 new COVID cases in Singapore; 2 new clusters

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sunday (22 August) confirmed 35 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, taking the country's total case count to 66,478.

The ministry also announced two more COVID-19 related deaths, bringing the total in the city-state to 49. They are a 91-year-old female permanent resident and an 87-year-old Singaporean man.

Altogether, 12 in Singapore have succumbed to COVID-19 this month.

Of the new cases, 29 are locally transmitted infections, including 17 unlinked infections. The ministry did not provide a breakdown of how many of them are in the community or are dormitory residents.

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

Two new clusters were announced on Sunday while six have closed, bringing the total number of COVID-19 active clusters here to 72.

Both new clusters are named after case numbers – 68669 and 68799 – and are each linked to three infections. The ministry did not provide details on the two cases as well as their linked 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 354 in the week before to 240 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 92 in the week before to 93 in the past week.

It added that the seven-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 21.0 and 13.3 respectively.

22 require oxygen supplementation; 7 in ICU

At least 65,528 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 Sunday, 346 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 49 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 8.6 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated is 1.7 per cent, the ministry noted.

As of Saturday, about 8.58 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 4.23 million having completed the full vaccination regimen.

Separately, 159,204 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing (WHO EUL) have been administered as of Saturday, covering 84,530 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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