SINGAPORE - Most deaths this month linked to Covid-19 arose from infections that had happened earlier in the month, when there were more daily cases and fewer people were vaccinated, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.

In fact, 11 of the 12 people who died from Covid-19 complications in August were not fully vaccinated, he added in a Facebook post on Monday (Aug 23).

On Sunday, a 91-year-old woman who was unvaccinated and an 87-year-old man who was partially vaccinated died from Covid-19 complications.

Both had pre-existing conditions, such as cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.

Those who died from Covid-19 complications this month were largely seniors who had several pre-existing conditions.

Mr Ong said: "It remains important to get vaccinated. I have met many residents who are worried about getting vaccinated because they have some underlying illnesses, or they fall sick easily.

"In many of such instances, they need the vaccines even more because the chances of them falling very sick if infected with Covid-19 are much higher."

To better understand the situation in Singapore, Mr Ong said the Ministry of Health plotted a chart with the incidence of deaths and ICU admissions, according to the date when the patient was detected to have been infected.

This means that if a case was detected on Aug 1, then later deteriorated and got admitted to ICU or died on Aug 10, the data point was plotted on Aug 1 instead of Aug 10.

This helped illustrate how infections happened earlier in the month, when the overall vaccination numbers in Singapore were not as high as it is now.