Singapore — On Wednesday (Jul 28), the Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 136 new cases of Covid-19 infection in Singapore.
Among these, 27 were linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster and two were linked to the KTV lounge cluster. This cluster is Singapore’s largest one to date, with 932 cases in all.
Forty-eight of the new cases are unlinked. Sixty-one of the new cases are linked to previously detected cases and were already under quarantine, and 21 other linked cases were detected through surveillance.
However, MOH added that three of the new cases are senior citizens above the age of 70 who are either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated. These individuals are “at risk of serious illness,” the Ministry added.
The remaining six new cases are imported cases that were already isolated upon arrival in Singapore or were under Stay Home Notice (SHN). Four of the cases developed Covid during their SHN, while the infection in the other two was detected when they arrived in the country.
With five new infection clusters announced on Wednesday, Singapore now has a total of 44 active Covid clusters, including a Jurong Food Hub bakery, Home’s Favourite, which is linked to six Covid cases.
The bakery is closed until Aug 12 for deep cleaning and its staff are now in quarantine.
The other four new clusters are all linked to individual cases.
There are now 567 individuals with Covid who are hospitalised. Fortunately, most of them are “well and under observation,” MOH said. Twenty-three Covid patients are seriously ill and need oxygen supplementation, and 2 in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Only one of the patients who are seriously ill has been fully vaccinated. However, MOH explained that this patient “requires oxygen supplementation as she has underlying medical conditions.”
Sixteen senior citizens above the age of 60 are among those classified as very ill, among whom 15 are unvaccinated or have only received one vaccine dose.
MOH added, “There is continuing evidence that vaccination helps to prevent serious disease when one gets infected. Over the last 28 days, 31 local cases required oxygen supplementation, were admitted to ICU or passed away. 16 are unvaccinated, 13 are partially vaccinated and 2 are fully vaccinated.”
All in all, Singapore has seen an increase in the number of community cases from 765 cases the week before to 915 cases in this past week. According to MOH, as detection efforts increase, the number of cases is still expected to rise in the coming days.
There has also been an increase in the number of unlinked community cases from 45 in the previous week to 217 this past week. /TISG