4,248 new Covid-19 cases, 16 deaths on Oct 29

SINGAPORE - Sixteen people aged 44 to 90 years old have died of complications linked to Covid-19, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Friday (Oct 29).

All had various underlying medical conditions, said MOH in its daily virus update. The 44-year-old had not been vaccinated against Covid-19, it added. The ministry gave no further details. 

The new deaths take Singapore's death toll to 380.

Friday marks the 40th day in a row that deaths from Covid-19 were reported here.

There were 4,248 new Covid-19 infections reported on Friday by MOH.

Friday's cases comprised 3,710 new cases in the community, 536 in migrant worker dormitories and two imported cases.

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The weekly infection growth rate is at 1.15, up from 1.13 on Thursday.

This refers to the ratio of community cases in the past week over the week before. A weekly infection growth rate that is more than one shows that the number of new weekly Covid-19 cases is still increasing.

Friday's community cases included 559 seniors above 60 years old.

The total number of cases in Singapore now stands at 192,099. 

MOH said there are currently 257 patients who require oxygen supplementation in general hospital wards, 80 who are unstable and are being closely monitored in the intensive care unit (ICU), and 59 who are critically ill and intubated in the ICU.

The overall utilisation rate of the ICU is at 74 per cent, up from 72.8 per cent the day before.

Of the 362 ICU beds, 139 are currently occupied by Covid-19 patients.

Another 129 are occupied by those with non-Covid-19 conditions and 94 beds are empty.

In an update on the large clusters being monitored, MOH said 16 more cases have been detected at a cluster linked to the Institute of Mental Health. There are now 221 cases linked to it. Of these, 14 are staff, while the rest are patients.

The cluster was first reported by MOH on Monday.

The other clusters under close monitoring are NTUC Health Senior Day Care (Taman Jurong), PCF Sparkletots @ Whampoa Block 85, Maple Bear Loyang and Banyan Home @ Pelangi Village in Buangkok.