32 new COVID cases in Singapore; new cluster at Giant outlet in Hougang

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (19 August) reported 32 new cases of COVID-19 in Singapore, bringing the country's total to 66,366 infections.

Of them, 29 are locally transmitted – the lowest daily count of such cases in over a month – including 13 unlinked infections. The ministry did not provide a breakdown of how many of them are in the community or are dormitory residents.

The remaining three cases are imported, of whom one was detected upon their arrival in Singapore, while two developed the illness during the stay-home notice or isolation period.

Two new clusters were announced on Thursday, while five have closed, bringing the total number of active COVID-19 clusters here to 84.

The new "Case 67220" cluster is linked to 32 infections, all of whom are new infections. The ministry did not provide any details on the case as well as its linked infections.

The other new cluster is linked to a Giant outlet at Block 683 Hougang Avenue 8, which has seven cases, all of whom are also new.

Two new cases were also added to the "Case 68431" cluster, bringing the total to seven, while one was added to the cluster at Superland Pre-School at Kreta Ayer Community Centre, bringing the total to 17.

No new cases were added to Singapore's largest cluster at the Jurong Fishery Port, linked to 1,155 cases, as well as the second-largest cluster – linked to various KTVs – which has 253 cases.

The MOH noted that the number of new cases in the community has decreased from 412 in the week before to 290 in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased from 112 in the week before to 80 in the past week.

It added that the seven-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 30.0 and 11.4 respectively.

29 require oxygen supplementation; 8 in ICU

At least 65,062 cases in Singapore, or over 99 per cent of the overall total, have fully recovered from their infection and have been discharged from the hospital.

As of Thursday, 391 cases are currently warded, most of whom are well and under observation.

There are currently 29 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation and eight in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Of those who have fallen very ill, 28 are patients above the age of 60, of whom 22 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, said the MOH.

Apart from the 46 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

Over the last 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated who became severely ill or died is 9.1 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated is 1.7 per cent, the ministry noted.

As of Wednesday, about 8.51 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme. Some 4.45 million have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with some 4.19 million having completed the full vaccination regimen.

Separately, 153,913 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing (WHO EUL) have been administered as of Wednesday, covering 84,219 individuals.

This means that 77 per cent of the population have completed their full regimen, or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and 82 per cent have received at least one dose.

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