SINGAPORE, Oct 13 — In what appeared to be signs that stabilisation measures by the Government’s Covid-19 task force are helping to chip away at the infection wave, 2,976 new cases of Covid-19 were reported on Tuesday (Oct 12), the third day in a row that the number of infections went below the 3,000 mark.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday night, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that he has been feeling anxious on Tuesdays, because that is when cases detected on Mondays would be reported, and the numbers “always spike after the weekends”.
“The good news is that it didn’t today, to the great relief of the (task force). But we continue to have many patients who need oxygen supplement, (intensive) care and (who have), sadly, passed on,” he added.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely over the next few days. But it would appear the stabilisation measures are helping to moderate the transmission wave, and infection numbers are no longer doubling every week.
“This is important to our healthcare system and our healthcare workers,” he said, referring to the strain on healthcare workers as manpower is affected by people who have to be quarantined or isolated.
Tuesday’s report by the Ministry of Health on the coronavirus situation also recorded 11 deaths.
The 11 were Singaporeans aged between 66 and 98 — five were men and the remaining six were women.
Two were vaccinated, six were partially vaccinated and the remaining three were not.
“All of them had various underlying medical conditions,” MOH said, without indicating when they were infected with Covid-19 or had died.
In total, 183 people here have died from complications after contracting the coronavirus, including 82 this month.
Singapore has logged a total of 132,205 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.
Of the new cases reported on Tuesday, 2,721 cases were in the community, 251 were workers' dormitory residents and the remaining four were imported.
Among the new locally transmitted cases were 519 patients who are aged above 60, MOH said.
There are 1,619 patients who are in hospital, 79 fewer than the day before.
Of these, 291 patients require oxygen support to help them breathe, down from the 308 the day before.
The number of patients under intensive care is at 42, the same as on Monday.
Among all Covid-19 community cases who have been onboarded or admitted:
16,932, or 78.7 per cent of them, are undergoing home recovery.
2,626 (12.2 per cent) are in community care facilities
1,619 (7.5 per cent) are in hospital, mostly for observation
335 (1.6 per cent) are in Covid-19 treatment facilities
MOH said that over the last 28 days, the percentage of local cases who had mild or no symptoms is 98.5 per cent.
During the same period, 1.2 per cent of cases required oxygen aid and 0.1 per cent had been warded in intensive care units
Of these, 49.9 per cent were fully vaccinated and 50.1 per cent were not vaccinated or partially vaccinated
Among those who have passed away in the past 28 days, 26.6 per cent were fully vaccinated and 73.4 per cent were not vaccinated or partially vaccinated
Clusters under monitoring
Among large clusters that are being closely monitored by the ministry, one had new cases, MOH said on Tuesday.
Six new cases were detected at the United Medicare Centre in Toa Payoh, bringing the total number of infections there to 99.
Vaccinations
As of Oct 11, 83 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated, and 85 per cent has received at least one dose.
A total of 9,490,422 doses of Covid-19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme (Pfizer-BioNTech or Comirnaty and Moderna) have been administered.
So far, 4,606,968 people have received at least one dose of vaccine under the national vaccination programme, and 4,546,215 individuals have completed the full vaccination regimen.
MOH added that to date, it has invited about 760,000 eligible people to receive their vaccine booster.
It said that 465,204 individuals have received their booster shots and another 127,000 have booked their appointments.
In addition, 215,702 doses of other vaccines such as Sinovac that are recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing have been administered, covering 113,562 individuals. — TODAY
