SINGAPORE: Three more senior citizens have died of complications from COVID-19, bringing Singapore's death toll from the virus this month to 18.
All three cases were not vaccinated against COVID-19, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily update on Friday (Aug 27).
Two of the cases died on Thursday.
All three cases were not vaccinated against COVID-19, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily update on Friday (Aug 27).
Two of the cases died on Thursday.
[Anti-vaxxers on FaceBook are livid that the press harp on the the vaccination status of the deceased. They rightly feel the (intended) pressure and message that vaccination saves lives. Of the 19 deaths since 23 July 2021, only one was fully vaccinated. Most were not. A handful were partially vaccinated. But they rather choose to focus on the co-morbidities (they learned a new word!) of the deceased. Choosing to believe that were it not for those pesky co-morbidities, the deceased might well have survived this "serious case of flu". They were howling with joy (poetic licence) over the death of #45. No, not THAT #45, OUR 45th fatality from Covid. A 90 yr old with kidney disease and hypertension died from complications, even tho he was fully vaccinated. They were just as gleeful when the 34-year-old Ukrainian seaman died, because that showed that it was not just the elderly who were vulnerable, and so "WOULD THE GOVT STOP TRYING TO FORCE OUR ELDERLY TO BE VACCINATED!" (from actual comment on Facebook). As Anti-Vaxxers they support no vaccinating regardless of the reason.
I know we are supposed to be understanding, non-judgmental, and call these anti-vaxxers, "vaccine-hesitant" or "vaccine-resistant" and try to understand why they are hesitant or resistant, and what doubts or questions they have, and try to answer those questions, and put their doubts to rest.
If they are hesitant/resistant in good faith.
One anti-vaxxer posted on Facebook his comment about how the vaccine was NOT fully approved by the FDA (it is approved under the Emergency Use Authorisation). And how this in fact absolves ALL risks of the use of the UNAPPROVED vaccine from the manufacturer (Pfizer, AstraZeneca, et al), and how we had all be duped into the BIGGEST BETA TESTING SCAM in history.
He posted this a day or so before Pfizer's obtained full approval from the FDA for the vaccine. So my reply to him was point out that the Pfizer vaccine had been approved, and his concerns have been put to rest. Assuming he was arguing in good faith.
He wasn't, of course.]
One was an 80-year-old Singaporean man who tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug 7 and was admitted to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital on the same day. He had no known medical conditions.
The other was a 90-year-old Singaporean woman who was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for an unrelated medical condition on Aug 18, and tested positive for COVID-19 the next day. She had a history of cancer, heart disease, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia.
The third fatality was a 70-year-old Singaporean woman who died on Friday.
She was also admitted to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for an unrelated medical condition on Aug 11. She was negative for COVID-19 on admission, but tested positive when another test was taken on Aug 17.
She had a history of diabetes mellitus, ischaemic heart disease, end-stage renal failure, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia.
MOH said that two of the fatalities were "non-ambulatory and had limited movement outside of their homes, but yet had been infected as unlinked cases".
These were the 70-year-old woman identified as Case 68636 and the 90-year-old woman identified as Case 68664.
Singapore has recorded 55 deaths from COVID-19 to date. August is the country's deadliest month since the start of the pandemic.
[Up to 23 July, we had held the deaths from Covid to just 36, for one whole year. Then Delta struck, and in 5 weeks we have 19 deaths. Most of them in their advanced years (one was a Ukrainian seaman, 34 years old), most were not vaccinated. A few (2, I think) had their first shot but not their second dose of vaccine, and just one (as far as I can recall) was fully vaccinated.
The 11 cases since 23 July 2021 has been blogged here.
The 12th and 13th cases were not vaccinated and partially vaccinated. The partially vaccinated patient has serious medical issues.
The 14th death (my count. The newspapers count the deaths in the month of August, so they ignore the earlier death in July, which is when the Delta variant started to take its toll) was also not vaccinated.
The 15th and 16th deaths were partially and not vaccinated.
And this report brings us to 19 deaths from Delta in the last 5 weeks (since 23 July 2021).
The reports/press release do not state that it is the Delta variant, but there are indications. In late July, it was noticed that the number of Covid patients that required oxygen support had increase dramatically, from 5 to 12 to a high of 18. A week later, there was a further spike.
It would take almost 10 days before the number of oxygen support patients dipped. But still, 30 required oxygen support. More than the 5 to 12 previously. ]
120 NEW LOCALLY TRANSMITTED CASES
Singapore reported 120 new locally transmitted COVID-19 infections as of noon on Friday, including 47 linked to the growing Bugis Junction cluster.
Of the remaining 73 locally transmitted infections, 31 were linked to previous cases and had been placed on quarantine, said MOH in its daily update. Another 16 linked infections were detected through surveillance testing.
Twenty-six infections were not linked to previous cases.
Among the new cases, three people above the age of 70 were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, and are at risk of serious illness, said MOH.
There were also two imported cases, taking Singapore's daily case count to 122.
NEW CLUSTERS AT BUS INTERCHANGE, DORMITORY
Two new COVID-19 clusters were identified on Friday.
Tuas South Lodge dormitory formed one new cluster with four infections, including two new cases reported on Friday.
Staff at Clementi bus interchange formed the other new cluster with seven infections, three of them reported on Friday.
Three existing clusters linked to staff at the Toa Payoh, Punggol and Bishan bus interchanges also continued to grow. These clusters now stand at 29, 17 and 24 infections respectively.
There is another active COVID-19 cluster at Sengkang bus interchange, with a total of 22 cases.
In response to CNA's queries, MOH said that epidemiological investigations are ongoing to determine any linkages and sources of transmission at the five bus interchange COVID-19 clusters.
New cases were also logged at the clusters linked to North Coast Lodge dormitory, Selarang Halfway House and Case 68669, of which the ministry did not provide further details.
SIX CASES IN CRITICAL CONDITION
Six cases were in critical condition in the intensive care unit while 13 cases of serious illness required oxygen supplementation, out of 369 warded in hospital.
Most of the patients who have fallen very ill are people above the age of 60 who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
Over the last 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated cases who became severely ill or died was 9.2 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated was 1.3 per cent.
79% OF POPULATION FULLY VACCINATED
As of Thursday, 79 per cent of Singapore's population has completed their full vaccination regimen or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, while 83 per cent has received at least one dose.
More than 8.6 million doses of vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme, with about 4.2 million people fully vaccinated.
Another 163,009 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization's emergency use listing have been administered to 85,390 people.
ALL HOUSEHOLDS TO GET FREE TEST KITS
All households in Singapore will receive free antigen rapid test (ART) kits as part of the nation's strategy to step up COVID-19 testing efforts, the Health Ministry announced earlier on Friday.
ART kits will also be given to students and employees of pre-schools, Ministry of Education kindergartens, early intervention centres, primary schools and special education schools (primary and junior sections).
The ministry said Singapore is "on track" for 80 per cent of the population to be fully vaccinated by end-August, and that despite an "uptick" in cases in the past four days, the majority were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.
As the number of jabs per day has dropped, four vaccination centres will be closed and more clinics will be mobilised to administer the shots.
Singapore has reported a total of 67,050 COVID-19 cases as of Friday.
[There is continuing evidence that vaccination helps. But the anti-vaxxers hates hearing this. They even hate reports that state whether the deceased was vaccinated or not (as mentioned above).
The unvaccinated, for the most part could still be asymptomatic or just have mild symptoms, but the risk for severe and fatal outcomes is much higher than for the fully vaccinated.
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