All COVID-19 cases in critical condition over past week above age of 60: MOH
An elderly man wearing a face mask sitting on a public bench marked for safe distancing. (File photo: Calvin Oh)
SINGAPORE: All of Singapore's COVID-19 cases who were in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU) over the past week were above the age of 60.
This was according to data released by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily update on the coronavirus situation on Wednesday (Jun 30).
Out of 133 cases warded in hospital, there were eight cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation and four cases in critical condition in the ICU on Wednesday. All four cases in the ICU were aged above 60.
Since Jun 24, all cases warded in the ICU have belonged to this age group, the data from MOH showed.
Since Jun 22, with the exception of Jun 30, cases above the age of 60 have also made up the majority of those requiring oxygen supplementation.
On Jun 30, out of eight people requiring oxygen supplementation, four were above the age of 60, three were between 40 and 60, and one was between 19 and 39.
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VACCINATION PREVENTS SERIOUS DISEASE
Of the four cases in the ICU on Wednesday, three were completely unvaccinated while one was partially vaccinated.
Out of eight cases requiring oxygen supplementation, seven were completely unvaccinated and one was partially vaccinated.
"There is continuing evidence that vaccination helps to prevent serious disease when one gets infected," said MOH.
Looking back over the last 28 days, MOH said there were 24 local cases of COVID-19 that required oxygen supplementation, were admitted to the ICU or died.
Out of the 24 cases, 20 were unvaccinated, three were partially vaccinated and one was fully vaccinated. The fully vaccinated patient had been ill before infection, said MOH.
In addition, the data showed that all three COVID-19 deaths in Singapore in June involved cases that were completely unvaccinated. Two of the cases who died were women aged 84 and 86, while one was a 44-year-old man.
On Tuesday night, MOH announced that it had changed the format of its daily coronavirus update as Singapore moved into "a new phase of battling the pandemic, with a strong focus on preventing the virus from spreading, vaccinating our population and starting the process to transit to a new normal".
"Besides daily numbers, we will include information on the key trends of the local situation, clusters we are monitoring, progress of vaccination and the number of people who suffered a severe form of the disease," MOH said.
Singapore reported a total of 16 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, including five locally transmitted infections and 11 imported infections.
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