Unvaccinated 64-year-old becomes 9th Covid-19 death in August

SINGAPORE - An unvaccinated 64-year-old man died on Monday (Aug 16) due to Covid-19 infection, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Wednesday.

The Singaporean had developed a cough on Aug 2 and was taken to Raffles Hospital the next day after suffering from heart problems.

He had a history of end-stage kidney failure, ischaemic cardiomyopathy, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, added the ministry.

This is the ninth death due to the coronavirus in August. In all, 46 people have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.

The ministry announced one new cluster with a total of five cases linked to an individual.

Seven clusters have been closed. With that, there are now 87 active clusters, ranging between three and 1,155 infections.

There were 53 new infections reported on Wednesday and, of these, 49 were locally transmitted.

Of the local cases, 23 were linked to previous cases and already quarantined. Another seven linked cases were not in quarantine when they tested positive.

A total of 19 cases remain unlinked.

Four imported cases were detected and isolated upon arrival in Singapore.

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MOH also said the number of new cases in the community has fallen from 448 the week before to 316 in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases has decreased from 125 to 94 in the same period.

Currently, 402 patients are in hospital. Most are well and under observation, said MOH.

Of those hospitalised, 26 require oxygen supplementation, while six are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Of the seriously ill, 27 are seniors aged above 60, and of them, 22 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

MOH said 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.

Over the past 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated people who became severely ill or died was 8.8 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated was 1.5 per cent, the ministry added.

On the country's vaccination progress, MOH said 77 per cent of Singapore's population were fully vaccinated as at Tuesday, while 82 per cent had received at least one dose.

A total of 8,486,232 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme, covering 4,447,250 people, with 4,170,573 people having completed the full vaccination regimen.

In addition, 153,020 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organisation's Emergency Use Listing have been administered, covering 84,172 people.

Read the full MOH press release here.

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