Man, 82, dies of Covid-19 infection; 10th death in August

[SINGAPORE] An 82-year-old man has died from complications due to Covid-19 infection on Thursday (Aug 19), said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday night.

He had developed symptoms on July 30 and was admitted to Alexandra Hospital after testing positive the next day.

The patient had not been vaccinated against Covid-19, and had a history of heart disease, damage to the heart, kidney disease and hypertension.

In total, 47 people have died from from Covid-19 complications.

Two new clusters were also uncovered, one of which is at a FairPrice supermarket in Kallang Bahru, with four cases.

The other cluster was linked to an individual and has three cases.

A total of 40 Covid-19 cases were detected on Friday, 36 of which were locally transmitted.

Of the local cases, 19 were linked to previous cases and already quarantined, while another three linked cases were not in quarantine when they tested positive. The remaining 14 were unlinked.

Among the cases are two seniors aged above 70 who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, and are at risk of serious illness, MOH said.

There were also four imported cases that were detected and placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.

Three of these cases was detected upon arrival in Singapore, while one developed the illness during stay-home notice or isolation.

The latest cases bring Singapore's total to 66,406.

In its daily night update on the Covid-19 situation, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said nine clusters have been closed.

With that, there are now 77 active clusters, ranging between three and 1,155 infections. This is the lowest number of active clusters since July 31.

MOH also said the number of new cases in the community has fallen from 380 the week before to 281 in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases has decreased from 99 to 84 in the same period.

Currently, 380 patients are in hospital. Of them, 27 require oxygen supplementation, while seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Of the very ill, 27 are seniors aged above 60, and of them, 23 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 is 9.2 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated is 1.7 per cent, it added.

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

A total of 8,526,565 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme, covering 4,459,200 people, with 4,200,032 people having completed the full vaccination regimen.

In addition, 154,936 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organisation's Emergency Use Listing have been administered, covering 84,281 people.

THE STRAITS TIMES