Unvaccinated woman, 95, and partially vaccinated man, 86, die

A partially vaccinated 86-year-old man and an unvaccinated 95-year-old woman have died from Covid-19 complications, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said last night.

The man, who died on Tuesday, tested positive for Covid-19 infection on July 28.

He was admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for an unrelated medical condition on July 1 and tested negative for the coronavirus multiple times.

MOH, in its daily Covid-19 update, said he had a history of cancer, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, heart disease, and hyperlipidaemia, or high levels of cholesterol.

The woman, who died yesterday, developed symptoms on Aug 5 and tested positive for the virus on Aug 9 after being admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. She had a history of Alzheimer's disease.

With these two deaths, 15 people have died this month from issues linked to Covid-19 infection, and Singapore's total death toll from the coronavirus stands at 52.

There were a total of 118 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases yesterday.

Of these, 38 new cases were added to the Bugis Junction cluster announced on Tuesday.

The cluster has 61 linked cases, 51 of whom are staff who work in Bugis Junction, including 46 from BHG. Ten cases are visitors to the mall.

BHG Bugis Junction will be closed for another five days until Monday, to break the potential chain of transmission and for deep cleaning of the premises.

Staff who have been working at the affected shops are being tested, and close contacts of confirmed cases will be quarantined, said MOH.

Free Covid-19 testing is being provided to members of the public who have visited shops or used facilities at the mall between Aug 17 and Aug 24.

Meanwhile, another 10 cases were added to the Selarang Halfway House cluster, which has a total of 19 cases.

Of these, 17 are inmates at the home, and two are household or workplace contacts of the inmates.

All staff and residents of the affected block have been tested for the virus, and all close contacts of cases and inmates living in the same block will be placed on quarantine, MOH said.

Another 26 cases were also added to the North Coast Lodge dormitory cluster, which now has a total of 112 infections.

Yesterday, 29 unlinked cases were also reported. There were also two imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notice or isolated on arrival in Singapore.

There are currently 350 cases hospitalised, 19 of whom have serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation. Seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Of those who have fallen very ill, 21 are seniors above 60, 17 of whom are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 316 cases in the week before to 335 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 81 cases in the week before to 131 cases in the past week.

As at Monday, 78 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, while 82 per cent have received at least one dose.