Covid-19: 2,909 new cases in Singapore; sharp rise in infections in migrant worker dormitories

SINGAPORE — There was a record 2,909 new cases of Covid-19 in Singapore on Friday (Oct 1), with 2,079 cases in the community, 818 in migrant worker dormitories and 12 that were imported.

Data from the Ministry of Health (MOH) showed that there has been a sharp rise in the number of cases in the dormitories.

The 818 cases in the dormitories reported on Friday was a jump from the 452 registered on Thursday, 448 on Wednesday and 515 on Tuesday.

Friday’s daily tally surpassed the previous daily high of 2,478 that was recorded the day before.

This means that the increase of 431 cases was dominated largely by the dormitory cases, which went up by 366 in a day.

Among the new locally transmitted cases are 556 patients who are aged above 60, MOH said in its daily update on the coronavirus situation.

There are 1,356 patients who are in hospital, four fewer than the day before.

Of these, 222 patients require oxygen support to help them breathe, up from the 204 the previous day.

The number of patients under intensive care has remained at 34 since Sept 29.

Of those who have fallen very ill, 214 are patients aged over 60.

Eight more deaths were also reported on Friday, bringing the tally to 103 so far.

Singapore has logged a total of 99,430 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

MOH said that over the last 28 days, the percentage of local cases who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms is 98.2 per cent.

During the same period, 471 cases required oxygen aid and 52 had been warded in intensive care units

Of these, 51.1 per cent were fully vaccinated and 48.9 per cent were not vaccinated or partially vaccinated

Over the last 28 days, 45 people have died, of whom 26.7 per cent were fully vaccinated and 73.3 per cent were not vaccinated or partially vaccinated

CLUSTERS UNDER MONITORING

Among large clusters that are being closely monitored by the ministry, 10 had new cases, with a total of 168 new infections added on Friday.

Of the 10 clusters, eight are foreign worker dormitories.

VACCINATIONS

As of Sept 30, 82 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated, and 85 per cent has received at least one dose.

A total of 9,204,856 doses of Covid-19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme (Pfizer-BioNTech or Comirnaty and Moderna) have been administered.

So far, 4,594,491 people have received at least one dose of vaccine under the national vaccination programme, and 4,487,124 individuals have completed the full vaccination regimen.

MOH added that to date, it has invited about 500,000 eligible seniors to receive their vaccine booster.

It said that 236,849 individuals have received their booster shots and another 111,000 have booked their appointments.

In addition, 198,533 doses of other vaccines such as Sinovac that are recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing have been administered, covering 101,290 individuals.