Covid-19: 2,069 new cases and 18 more deaths in Singapore; weekly infection growth rate at 0.88

• There were 2,069 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on Nov 16
• Eighteen deaths were registered for the day, bringing the tally here to 612
• There are 430 ICU beds, of which 272 are now occupied, including 122 by Covid-19 patients
• The ratio of community cases in the past week compared with the week before is 0.88

SINGAPORE — Singapore on Tuesday (Nov 16) recorded 2,069 new cases of Covid-19 and 18 more deaths due to complications from the disease.

The daily case count is the same as the one reported on Monday.

In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that there were 54 patients who were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care units (ICUs) to prevent further deterioration. This is up from the 51 reported the day before.

In addition, there were 68 patients who were critically ill and intubated in ICUs — four fewer than on Monday.

The number of patients who require oxygen support dipped from 255 on Monday to 234 on Tuesday.

In total, there are 430 ICU beds, of which 272 are now occupied — 122 by Covid-19 patients.

The overall ICU utilisation rate stands at 63.3 per cent, down marginally from 63.6 per cent on Monday.

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 Tuesday, 2,021 were in the community, 43 were residents of migrant workers’ dormitories, and the remaining five were imported.

There were 355 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 0.88 — a dip from the ratio of 0.94 reported on Monday.

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

The 18 patients who died were aged between 67 and 95.

“All of them had various underlying medical conditions,” MOH said.

In total, 612 people have died of Covid-19 complications here.

Singapore has registered a total of 241,341 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

LOCAL SITUATION

A total of 2,361 recovered patients were discharged on Tuesday, including 363 aged 60 and above.

There are still, however, 1,501 patients who remain hospitalised — 32 fewer than on Monday.

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
• 0.2 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, four had new cases — one fewer than on Monday.

A total of 34 new infections were added to these four large clusters.

Notably, there were 25 new cases linked to the Jenaris Home@Pelangi Village, a welfare home located at Buangkok Green. Of the 63 cases detected there, two have been linked to staff members and the remaining 61 are residents.

VACCINATIONS

As of Nov 15, 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 received at least one dose of a vaccine.

MOH added that 21 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 5.4
• The number of fully vaccinated patients who died was 0.1 per 100,000 people and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 1.0
• 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 48.1
• The number of fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and older who died was 0.3 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 10.1