Unvaccinated folk advised: Don't play with your life

Do not play with your life and assume that getting infected is safe for you - that is the advice from Singapore's director of medical services Kenneth Mak to those who are not vaccinated.

Speaking during a virtual media conference yesterday, he stressed that regardless of age, everyone should get Covid-19 vaccination and booster jabs that help to reduce the overall rate of infection.

Associate Professor Mak noted that while the share of cases in the population aged 50 and above has trended downwards, the proportion of younger people being infected has increased, particularly in the 20 to 30 age group.

He pointed out that on Friday, those between the ages of 20 and 30 made up 15.6 per cent of cases, compared with 14.2 per cent four weeks earlier.

"These young people are part of the community who are socially active, who continue to leave home on a regular basis, whether for work or for other reasons, and we may see more infections arising in this group as we lighten our safe management measures regime in the community," Prof Mak said.

He acknowledged that being of relatively young age and in good health does provide some risk reduction for severe Covid-19 infection, but said Singapore must not be complacent and assume that all young people who get infected will have a good outcome.

"We have seen some young people with severe infection and requiring ICU (intensive care unit) care," he cautioned.

While there are some who hold the view that because they are young or do not have any high-risk factors, they are prepared to take the chance of getting infected and hold out against vaccination, he stressed that this is not a safe approach.

"There have been deaths among cases who are less than 60 years of age. And, while many of (those who have died) have concurrent medical conditions, I see some unvaccinated cases in our ICUs today who do not have a history of any other medical condition, and they remain critically ill," he said.

"I am not assured that they will invariably make a good recovery. The risk of death still exists for some of them."

98.7% of those infected had mild or no symptoms 87% Under the home recovery programme or in community isolation facilities 4% In community treatment facilities 7% In hospitals

4.8% of total community cases over past four weeks, down from 7.2 per cent for previous four-week period.

4.1% of unvaccinated local cases in the last two weeks had severe conditions requiring ICU care or died. This compares with only 0.6 per cent among vaccinated local cases.

29% of those who were not fully vaccinated

4.1% of those fully vaccinated and had not received booster shots

0.8% who were fully vaccinated and received booster shots

1.3% of those not fully vaccinated

0.18% of fully vaccinated people

0.09% of those fully vaccinated with booster shots