Singapore — The total number of severe cases of Covid-19 patients has tripled over the last two weeks. Experts have warned that the number is likely to increase.
According to the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) Covid-19 updates, the number of Covid-19 patients requiring oxygen supplementation or currently in intensive care units (ICU) has increased from eight in total on Jul 15 to 25 on Wednesday (Jul 28).
“Over that week, the number of unvaccinated cases in the older age groups has more than doubled, so I feel we can expect the numbers of new severe cases to increase significantly,” said Professor Dale Fisher, senior consultant at the National University Hospital’s (NUH) Division of Infectious Diseases in a Straits Times report.
Still, the increase in cases should be “well within” the healthcare system’s capabilities, added Prof Fisher.
With more than half of Singapore’s population fully vaccinated, there may be one or two new severe cases daily should transmission remain in the hundreds, said professor of medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Paul Tambyah.
Prof Tambyah based the estimate on reports from countries like Britain and the United States with higher percentages of fully vaccinated people and their number of severe cases.
Professor Teo Yik Ying, Dean of the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, added that those above 70 years old and partially or fully unvaccinated are “at high risk to experience severe disease and require hospital care.”
On Thursday (Jul 29), MOH reported 129 cases of locally transmitted Covid-19 cases, of which 30 are linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster and two to the KTV cluster.
Among the cases, four are seniors above 70 years and are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, and are at risk of serious illness, said MOH.
MOH also reported ten new clusters on Thursday, bringing the total of active clusters to 53. The Jurong Fishery Port cluster is the largest with 969 cases, followed by the KTV cluster with 248 cases.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 884 cases in the week before to 881 cases in the past week.
Meanwhile, the number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 64 cases in the week before to 238 cases in the past week.
There are currently 30 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation, and three are in ICU.
We are likely to continue to see a high number of cases in the coming days as we step up efforts to detect them to contain their spread in the community, said MOH. /TISG
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