SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Health (MOH) has added 18 deaths to its official Covid-19 death count for last year, bringing the total from 803 to 821.

In a statement on Monday (Aug 1), MOH said the adjustment comes after the Registry of Births and Deaths finalised its report for 2021.

With the 18 deaths added, there is a 2.2 per cent increase from the previous count, MOH said. 

It added that there is no change in the number of Covid-19 deaths for 2020.

Doctors are required to notify MOH of Covid-19 deaths as soon as possible.

Based on their submissions, MOH publishes the number of deaths on its website daily. 

Doctors are also required to report the cause of death of their patients to the Registry of Births and Deaths. This is included in a Registration of Births and Deaths report that is made public in June each year. 

The adjustments made to MOH’s 2021 Covid-19 death count are as follows:

Eight deaths were added as they had not been reported to MOH - only the Registry of Births and Deaths was notified.

Another 11 deaths were added as Covid-19 infection was not indicated as the underlying cause of death, given the available medical information at the time. 

These deaths were later reported to the Registry with Covid-19 as its cause after further review. 

One Covid-19 death was removed from the 2021 count and will be added to the 2022 count. This was due to differences in the date of its reporting to MOH and the Registry as the death occurred on Dec 31 last year.

MOH said five deaths in the Registry’s report were people who had been diagnosed with Covid-19 while overseas and died after coming back to Singapore.

“These deaths will not be included as MOH’s count only includes deaths from Covid-19 diagnosed in Singapore.”

MOH said it expects to make annual adjustments to the Covid-19 death count each July, after the Registry’s report is published.

As at noon on Monday, Singapore has reported a total of 1,718,765 cases of Covid-19 with 1,520 fatalities.