Fully vaccinated 90-year-old man dies from COVID-19 complications; 52 new locally transmitted cases in Singapore

SINGAPORE: A 90-year-old man who was fully vaccinated died from COVID-19 complications on Tuesday (Aug 17), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

The Singaporean man was the first person who was fully vaccinated to die of the coronavirus in Singapore, and was the eighth fatality this month.

Identified as Case 67329, he developed symptoms on Jul 29, said MOH. His infection was detected on Aug 1 through community surveillance testing.

The following day, he developed shortness of breath and giddiness, and was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital where he was admitted directly to the intensive care unit (ICU) for septic shock from "COVID-19 pneumonia", added MOH.

"He had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but was advanced in age and had a history of chronic kidney disease and hypertension," said the Health Ministry.

As of Tuesday, 45 people in Singapore have died of complications from COVID-19.

52 NEW LOCALLY TRANSMITTED CASES

Singapore reported 52 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases as of noon on Tuesday, including 14 infections with no links to previous cases.

Thirty-five infections were linked to previous cases and had been placed on quarantine, said MOH. Another three linked infections were detected through surveillance testing.

There were also four imported cases. Three of them were detected upon arrival while the remaining case developed the illness during the stay-home notice or isolation period.

In total, Singapore reported 56 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.

WESTLITE JUNIPER DORMITORY CLUSTER GROWS

Another 13 infections were linked to the Westlite Juniper Dormitory cluster, which has grown to 65 cases.

Two new cases were also added to the cluster involving Sengkang Bus Interchange staff, which now has 19 cases in total.

The cluster at My First Skool at Block 54 Chin Swee Road grew to 36 infections, with two new cases added to it on Tuesday.

Six clusters were closed on Tuesday, with no new clusters reported. There are currently 93 active clusters.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community fell from 481 cases in the week before to 322 cases in the past week, said MOH.

The number of unlinked cases in the community also fell from 135 cases in the week before to 91 cases in the past week.

SIX CASES IN CRITICAL CONDITION

A total of 404 cases were warded in hospital. Six cases were in critical condition in the ICU and 30 cases of serious illness required oxygen supplementation, said MOH.

Of those who had fallen very ill, 31 were above the age of 60, of whom 25 were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, said MOH.

"There is continuing evidence that almost all fully-vaccinated individuals do not suffer serious disease when infected, unless if they had underlying medical conditions that made them more susceptible," added the Health Ministry.

Over the last 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated cases who became severely ill or died was 9.6 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated was 1.4 per cent.

76% OF POPULATION FULLY VACCINATED

As of Monday, more than 8.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered under the national vaccination programme.

In addition, 151,089 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization's Emergency Use Listing have been administered, covering 83,968 individuals.

In total, 76 per cent of Singapore's population has completed their full vaccination regimen or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, while 82 per cent has received at least one dose.

SUSPECTED ADVERSE EFFECTS REPORTED IN 0.12% OF MRNA COVID-19 VACCINE DOSES

The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) on Monday said that a total of 9,403 reports of suspected adverse effects associated with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines have been submitted in Singapore as of end-July. 

These reports accounted for 0.12 per cent of the more than 7.5 million doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines administered between Dec 30 last year and Jul 31 this year. 

Of these, 389 reports - or 0.005 per cent of administered doses - were classified as serious adverse events, the authority said in a safety update.

The most commonly reported adverse effects were dizziness, shortness of breath, chest tightness or discomfort, injection site reactions such as pain and swelling, fever, as well as allergic reactions such as rash and swelling of eyelids, face and lips.

As of Tuesday, Singapore has reported a total of 66,281 COVID-19 cases.