Fourteen people aged between 60 and 93 have died of complications linked to Covid-19, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday.
All of them had various types of underlying medical conditions, said MOH in its daily virus update, without giving further details. This takes Singapore's death toll to 329.
MOH yesterday added eight cases to a large cluster comprising 116 cases that has emerged at the Institute of Mental Health. Of these, eight are staff while 108 are residents, said MOH.
The inpatient cases come largely from three blocks, and were detected from IMH surveillance tests for patients or picked up after they developed respiratory symptoms.
Most of the cases are long-stay patients but IMH was unable to say when the cluster was detected.
Singapore has reported daily Covid-19 deaths for the last 36 days.
Yesterday, there were 3,174 new Covid-19 infections in total, comprising 2,843 new cases in the community, 322 in migrant worker dormitories and nine imported cases, said MOH. The community cases included 457 seniors above 60 years of age.
It added that the weekly infection growth rate is at 1.18. The authorities have said the weekly infection growth rate must drop below one for Singapore to ease restrictions.
The total number of cases in Singapore now stands at 175,818.
MOH added that 261 patients now require oxygen supplementation in general hospital wards, while 107 are unstable and under close monitoring in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Another 64 people are critically ill and intubated in the ICU. The overall utilisation rate of the ICU is 83.6 per cent, added MOH.
A total of 366 ICU beds are available and 171 are occupied by Covid-19 patients while 135 are occupied by those with other conditions. There are 60 empty beds, down from 75 on Sunday.
MOH also added seven more cases to a cluster at the Bukit Batok Home for the Aged, and five more to a cluster at Banyan Home@ Pelangi Village in Buangkok, for a total of 71 cases. The total at the Bukit Batok home is now 154. Of these, 148 are residents and six are staff.
As at yesterday, there were 18,279 patients in home recovery, 4,626 in community care facilities and 952 in Covid-19 treatment facilities. There were 1,779 patients in hospital.
So far, 84 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated and 85 per cent have received at least one dose. A total of 709,525 people have received their booster shots, making up 13 per cent of the population.
