4,248 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore; 16 more deaths bring tally to 380

SINGAPORE — There were 4,248 new cases of Covid-19 reported on Friday (Oct 29) and 16 more deaths due to complications from the disease.

This was the second highest number of daily infections recorded in a single day, after a record 5,324 infections just two days ago.

In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation here, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that there were 80 patients who were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care units (ICUs) to prevent further deterioration, up from the 75 reported the day before.

In addition, there were 59 patients who were critically ill and intubated in ICUs, two fewer than on Thursday.

The number of patients who require oxygen support went down from 294 on Thursday to 257 on Friday.

In total, there are 362 ICU beds, of which 268 are now occupied — 139 by Covid-19 patients.

This means that the ICU utilisation rate is now 74 per cent, slightly up from the 72.8 per cent reported the day before.

MOH stressed that people aged 60 and above continue to be “more adversely affected by Covid-19” especially if they are not vaccinated.

Among the new infections recorded on Friday, 3,710 were in the community, 536 were made up of migrant worker dormitory residents and the remaining two were imported.

The ratio of community cases in the past week compared with the week before stood at 1.15, up from the 1.13 reported the day before.

On Friday, there were 559 people above the age of 60 among the community cases, MOH said.

The 16 who died were aged between 44 and 90.

“All of them had various underlying medical conditions,” the ministry said without giving more details, only that the 44-year-old who died was not vaccinated.

In total, 380 people here have died of Covid-19 complications, including 279 this month alone.

LOCAL SITUATION

Singapore has registered a total of 192,099 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

Some 3,011 cases were discharged on Friday, of whom 489 were people above the age of 60.

There are still, however, 1,614 patients who remain warded in the hospitals, 118 fewer than on Thursday. 

In a departure from its usual format, MOH on Friday stopped giving a breakdown on the number of patients who are undergoing home recovery, those who are in the community care facilities as well as those who are in Covid-19 treatment facilities.

Over the last 28 days, the percentage of local cases who had mild or no symptoms was 98.7 per cent, it said. During the same period:

• 0.8 per cent of patients required oxygen aid
• 0.2 per cent were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care
• 0.1 per cent were critically ill and intubated in ICU
• 0.2 per cent had died

CLUSTERS UNDER MONITORING

Among large clusters that are being closely monitored by the ministry, five had new cases, MOH said. This was one fewer cluster compared to Thursday.

A total of 32 new infections were added to these five large clusters.

Notably, there were 16 new cases linked to the cluster at the Institute of Mental Health, bringing the tally there to 221. Of the 221 cases, 207 are patients of the psychiatric hospital and the remaining 14 are workers there.

In the past seven days:

• The number of fully vaccinated patients who were critically ill in ICU was at 0.5 per 100,000 population and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 4.4 
• The number of fully vaccinated patients who died was 0.1 per 100,000 population and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 0.9
• For fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and above, the number who were critically ill under intensive care was 2.1 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 35.0 
• The number of fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and above who died was 0.4 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 8.8 

VACCINATIONS

As of Oct 28, 84 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, and 85 per cent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

MOH added that 14 per cent of the population have received their booster shots.