3 unvaccinated seniors die, bringing death toll to 55

Three seniors have died of Covid-19 complications, bringing the total death toll in the country to 55.

All had not been vaccinated against the virus, said the Health Ministry last night.

The patients who died include a 70-year-old woman who had been admitted to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) for an unrelated medical condition on Aug 11 and tested negative upon admission.

Another test taken on Aug 17 came back positive, and she died yesterday.

She had a history of diabetes, heart disease, end-stage kidney failure, high blood pressure and hyperlipidaemia, or high levels of cholesterol.

A 90-year-old woman who died on Thursday was also admitted to KTPH for an unrelated condition on Aug 18, testing positive for the virus on Aug 19.

She had a history of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and hyperlipidaemia.

Both women had limited movement outside of their homes, yet they were infected as unlinked cases, said the ministry.

The third death is an 80-year-old man who had no known medical conditions.

He tested positive on Aug 7, was admitted to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital on the same day, and died on Thursday.

Two new clusters were also uncovered at Tuas South Lodge and among Clementi Bus Interchange staff.

Four cases have been linked to the Tuas South Lodge cluster, and seven at the interchange - the fifth active cluster at a bus interchange.

There are 66 active clusters, ranging between three and 1,155 infections each.

In all, there were 120 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases yesterday. Of these, 47 new cases were added to the Bugis Junction cluster, which now has 151 cases.

Of the remaining 73 local cases, 31 were linked to previous cases and already quarantined.

Another 16 linked cases were not in quarantine when they tested positive. The remaining 26 were unlinked cases.

There were also two imported cases who were detected upon arrival in Singapore.

In total, there were 122 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore yesterday, bringing the country's total to 67,050.

There are currently 369 cases hospitalised, 13 of whom have serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation.

Six are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Of the very ill, 15 are seniors aged above 60, and of them, 11 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

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 1.3 per cent.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 281 cases in the week before to 484 cases in the past week.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 81 cases in the week before to 133 cases in the past week.

As at Thursday, 79 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, while 83 per cent have received at least one dose.