Unvaccinated 86-year-old woman dies; total fatalities rise to 50

An unvaccinated 86-year-old woman has died from complications due to Covid-19 infection, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday.

The Singaporean woman was first identified on Aug 2 as a close contact of a patient who was a confirmed case.

She had a history of cancer and hypertension, 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 die from Covid-19 complications this month. Her death takes Singapore's virus death toll to 50.

In a Facebook post earlier yesterday, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said most deaths linked to Covid-19 in August arose from infections that had happened earlier in the month, when there were more daily cases and fewer people were vaccinated.

In fact, 11 of the 12 people who died from Covid-19 complications this month were not fully vaccinated, he added.

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."

Yesterday, there were 59 new cases linked to North Coast Lodge in Woodlands. They were detected through testing operations, which began last Saturday when three residents tested positive for Covid-19 during rostered routine testing.

MOH said that about 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 on movement restriction order.

All in, there were 94 new locally transmitted infections yesterday.

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.

The total 98 new coronavirus cases here yesterday brought the country's total to 66,576 infections.

There are now 336 hospitalised cases. Most of the patients are doing well and are under observation, said MOH. There are 21 patients who are seriously ill and require oxygen support, and seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Of those who have fallen very ill, 22 are seniors aged above 60. Of these, 18 are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

In the past 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated patients who became severely ill or died was 8.8 per cent, while that for those fully vaccinated was 1.7 per cent.

MOH said 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 in the past week.

But the number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 83 in the week before to 101 in the past week.