12 Covid-19 deaths in August with the latest an 87-year-old Singaporean

SINGAPORE - A 91-year-old woman who was unvaccinated and an 87-year-old man who was partially vaccinated died of Covid-19 complications at the weekend.

They are the 11th and 12th people to have died of Covid-19 complications in August.

With the latest deaths, announced by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sunday night (Aug 22), Singapore's virus death toll stands at 49.

The 91-year-old woman, who was a permanent resident, died on Saturday.

Her case was first reported on Aug 3.

She developed symptoms on July 30, then tested positive for Covid-19 infection and was admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

She was not vaccinated against Covid-19, and had a history of chronic kidney disease, heart disease, high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol, and hyperparathyroidism - a condition that involves high secretion of a hormone that regulates calcium levels.

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The 87-year-old Singaporean man died on Sunday from Covid-19 complications. His case was detected on Aug 4, when he was taken to the National University Hospital for an unrelated medical condition.

He tested positive for Covid-19 after he displayed symptoms of infection.

He was partially vaccinated against Covid-19, and had a history of advanced cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and high levels of cholesterol.

Two new clusters were announced on Sunday.

A new case was added to the cluster linked to an existing patient, while two new cases were linked to another Covid-19 patient, taking the total number of cases in each cluster to three.

MOH did not provide more details on the new clusters.

There were 29 new locally transmitted coronavirus cases as at Sunday noon.

Of the new infections, nine were linked to previous cases and had already been quarantined.

Another three linked cases were not in quarantine when they tested positive.

The remaining 17 were unlinked cases.

There were also six imported cases that were placed on stay-home notice or isolated on arrival in Singapore.

In total, there were 35 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on Sunday, bringing the country's total to 66,478.

There are now 346 hospitalised cases. Most of the cases are doing well and under observation, said MOH.

There are 22 patients who are seriously ill and require oxygen support, as well as seven who are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Of those who have fallen very ill, 23 are seniors aged above 60. Of this figure, 18 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

MOH reiterated that there is continuing evidence that almost all fully vaccinated individuals do not suffer serious disease when infected, unless they have underlying medical conditions that make them more susceptible.

MOH said that in the past 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated patients who became severely ill or died is 8.6 per cent, while that for those fully vaccinated is 1.7 per cent.

MOH said that 78 per cent of Singapore's population have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and 82 per cent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has fallen from 354 cases in the week before to 240 cases in the past week, MOH added.

But the number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 92 cases in the week before to 93 cases in the past week.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.