SINGAPORE - Fifteen people aged 62 to 98 years old have died of complications linked to Covid-19, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Thursday (Oct 28).
All had various underlying medical conditions, said MOH in its daily virus update. It gave no further details.
The new deaths take Singapore's death toll to 364.
Thursday marks the 39th day in a row that deaths from Covid-19 were reported here.
There were 3,432 new Covid-19 infections reported in Singapore on Thursday by MOH.
This is 1,892 fewer cases reported than on Wednesday, which hit a record 5,324 cases.
Thursday's cases comprised 3,171 new cases in the community, 252 in migrant worker dormitories and nine imported cases.
The weekly infection growth rate is at 1.13, down from 1.15 on Wednesday.
In a separate statement, MOH told The Straits Times as at Tuesday (Oct 26), one imported case here has been confirmed to have had the AY.4.2 Delta subvariant.
MOH said there has been no evidence of spread to the community from the case.
MOH added AY.4.2 is not a new variant, but a subvariant of the Delta variant.
And while its effects are still being studied, AY.4.2 is currently expected to be similar to other Delta subvariants in terms of transmissibility and severity of illness.
MOH said it has been classified by WHO as a variant of interest, but not a variant of concern.
Meanwhile, Thursday's community cases included 545 seniors above 60 years old.
The total number of cases in Singapore now stands at 187,851.
MOH said there are currently 294 patients who require oxygen supplementation in general hospital wards, 75 who are unstable and are being closely monitored in the intensive care unit (ICU), and 61 who are critically ill and intubated in the ICU.
The overall utilisation rate of the ICU is at 72.8 per cent, down from 79.8 per cent the day before.
Of the 360 ICU beds, 136 are currently occupied by Covid-19 patients. Another 126 are occupied by those with non-Covid-19 conditions and 98 beds are empty.
In an update on large clusters being monitored, MOH said four more cases have been detected at a cluster linked to the Institute of Mental Health.
There are now 158 cases linked to it. Of these, 12 are staff, while the rest are patients. The cluster was first reported by MOH on Monday.
The other clusters under close monitoring are PCF Sparkletots @ Whampoa Block 85, Maple Bear Loyang, AWWA Community Home for Senior Citizens in Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Batok Home for the Aged and United Medical Centre - Toa Payoh.
These clusters each added between one and three new cases.
MOH said as at Thursday, there were 20,202 patients in home recovery, while 4,581 are in community care facilities.
Another 942 are in Covid-19 treatment facilities, while 1,732 are warded in hospital, mostly for observation, MOH added.
