Covid-19: 1,734 new cases and 16 more deaths in Singapore; weekly infection growth rate at 0.77

• There were 1,734 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on Nov 19
• This was 304 fewer infections compared to the day before
• 16 deaths were registered for the day, bringing the tally here to 641
• There are 430 ICU beds, of which 245 are now occupied, including 110 by Covid-19 patients
• The ratio of community cases in the past week compared with the week before is 0.77

SINGAPORE — Singapore on Friday (Nov 19) recorded 1,734 new cases of Covid-19 and 16 more deaths due to complications from the disease.

The daily case count is lower than the 2,038 reported on Thursday.

In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that there were 46 patients who were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care units (ICUs) to prevent further deterioration. This is down from the 53 reported the day before.

In addition, there were 64 patients who were critically ill and intubated in ICUs — four more than on Thursday.

The number of patients who require oxygen support dropped from 226 on Thursday to 202 on Friday.

In total, there are 430 ICU beds, of which 245 are now occupied — 110 by Covid-19 patients.

The overall ICU utilisation rate stands at 57 per cent, down from 58.8 per cent on Thursday.

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, 1,633 were in the community, 97 were residents of migrant workers’ dormitories and the remaining four were imported.

There were 269 people aged 60 and older among the community cases.

The ratio of community cases in the past week, compared with the week before, stood at 0.77— a significant decrease from the ratio of 0.9 reported on Thursday.

This is the seventh day in a row that the week-on-week infection ratio rate has been below 1.0.

The 16 patients who died were aged between 52 and 93.

“All of them, except for an unvaccinated case, had various underlying medical conditions,” MOH said.

In total, 641 people have died of Covid-19 complications here.

Singapore has registered a total of 248,587 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

LOCAL SITUATION

A total of 2,874 recovered patients were discharged on Friday, including 456 aged 60 and above.

There are still, however, 1,346 patients who remain hospitalised — 89 fewer than on Thursday.

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

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

CLUSTERS UNDER MONITORING

Among the large Covid-19 clusters that are being closely monitored by the ministry, five had new cases — two more than on Thursday.

A total of 10 new infections were added to these five large clusters.

VACCINATIONS

As of Nov 18, MOH said that 94 per cent of the eligible population — those aged 12 and above — have been fully vaccinated.

Among the total population, 85 per cent have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and 86 per cent have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

MOH added that 22 per cent of the total population have received their vaccine boosters.

In the past seven days:

• The number of fully vaccinated patients who were critically ill in ICU was at 0.6 per 100,000 people and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 4.9
• The number of fully vaccinated patients who died was 0.1 per 100,000 people 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 2.0 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 43.2
• The number of fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and older who died was 0.2 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 9.6