SINGAPORE - An unvaccinated 86-year-old woman has died from complications due to Covid-19 infection, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily update on Monday (Aug 23).
The woman was first identified on Aug 2, as she was a close contact of a patient who was a confirmed case.
The Singaporean, who had a history of cancer and high blood pressure, was admitted to Changi General Hospital on July 23 for an unrelated medical condition, and tested negative for the coronavirus at the time.
She is the 13th person to have died of the virus in August, and takes Singapore's virus death toll to 50.
Fifty-nine new cases were linked to North Coast Lodge in Woodlands, and were detected through testing operations conducted from last Saturday.
This was after three residents tested positive for the coronavirus on the same day during rostered routine testing.
MOH said that around 2,200 workers have been swabbed so far, and testing for the remaining 3,200 residents is under way. The confirmed cases are mostly asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.
As a precaution, all residents at the dormitory have been placed under a movement restriction order.
All in, there were 94 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on Monday.
Of the remaining 35 locally transmitted cases, 16 were linked to previous infections and had already been quarantined. The other 19 were unlinked cases.
There were also four imported cases that were placed on stay-home notice (SHN) or isolated on arrival in Singapore.
In total, there were 98 new coronavirus cases in Singapore on Monday, bringing the country's total to 66,576 infections.
There are now 336 hospitalised cases. Most of the cases are doing well and are under observation, said MOH.
There are 21 patients who are seriously ill and require oxygen support, as well as seven who are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Of those who have fallen very ill, 22 are seniors aged above 60.
Of this number, 18 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
MOH reiterated that there is continuing evidence that almost all fully vaccinated individuals do not suffer serious disease when infected, unless they have underlying medical conditions that make them more susceptible.
In the past 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated patients who became severely ill or died is 8.8 per cent, while that for those fully vaccinated is 1.7 per cent.
MOH added that 78 per cent of Singapore's population have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and 82 per cent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has fallen from 331 cases in the week before to 240 cases in the past week, MOH added.
But the number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 83 cases in the week before to 101 cases in the past week.
