SINGAPORE, Nov 5 — Singapore on Thursday (Nov 4) logged 3,003 new cases of Covid-19 and 17 more deaths due to complications from the disease.

In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation here, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that there were 66 patients who were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care units (ICUs) to prevent further deterioration, down from the 72 reported the day before.

In addition, there were 72 patients who were critically ill and intubated in ICUs, three more than on Wednesday.

The number of patients who require oxygen support went down from 293 on Wednesday to 286 on Thursday.

In total, there are 409 ICU beds, of which 287 are now occupied — 138 by Covid-19 patients.

This puts the ICU utilisation rate at 70.2 per cent, the lower than the day before.

MOH stressed that people aged 60 and above continue to be "more adversely affected by Covid-19”, especially if they are not vaccinated.

Among the new infections recorded on Thursday, 2,780 were in the community, 220 were made up of migrant worker dormitory residents and the remaining three were imported.

There were 698 people above the age of 60 among the community cases.

The ratio of community cases in the past week compared with the week before stood at 0.93, down from the 0.96 reported the day before. This is the second consecutive day where the weekly infection growth rate is under 1. 

The 17 who died were aged between 55 and 93.

"All of them had various underlying medical conditions,” the ministry said without giving more details.

In total, 459 people here have died of Covid-19 complications.

Local situation

Singapore has registered a total of 210,978 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

A total of 5,087 recovered patients were discharged on Thursday, including 698 aged 60 and above.

There are still, however, 1,683 patients who remain warded in the hospitals, 18 more than on Wednesday.

Over the last 28 days, the percentage of local cases who had mild or no symptoms was 98.7 per cent, MOH said. During the same period:

• 0.7 per cent of patients required oxygen aid
• 0.2 per cent were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care
• 0.1 per cent were critically ill and intubated in ICU
• 0.2 per cent had died

Clusters under monitoring

Among large clusters that are being closely monitored by the ministry, 10 had new cases. This was one more cluster compared to Wednesday.

A total of 25 new infections were added to these 10 large clusters.

Vaccinations

As of Nov 3, 85 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated and 85 per cent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

MOH added that 17 per cent of the population have received their booster shots.

In the past seven days:

• The number of fully vaccinated patients who were critically ill in ICU was at 0.5 per 100,000 population and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 4.7
• The number of fully vaccinated patients who died was 0.1 per 100,000 population and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 0.9
• For fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and above, the number who were critically ill under intensive care was 1.8 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 37.4
• The number of fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and above who died was 0.4 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 8.2 — TODAY