Singapore tops 100,000 total COVID-19 cases, reports 4 more deaths

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 2,356 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Saturday (Oct 2), taking the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic past the 100,000 mark.

Saturday's count was the first drop after four days of rising cases.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) also reported four more deaths from complications due to the coronavirus.

The four cases were all Singaporeans - consisting of three women and one man, aged between 55 and 80 years old. All of them had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and had various underlying medical conditions.

This brings Singapore’s total death toll to 107.

Of the new cases, 2,350 were locally transmitted infections, comprising 1,938 cases in the community and 412 dormitory residents.

Among these cases were 513 seniors above the age of 60, MOH said in its daily update released to the media at about 11pm.

There were also six imported cases, with five detected upon arrival in Singapore and one who developed the illness during the stay-home notice or isolation period.

As of Saturday, Singapore has reported a total of 101,786 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

HOSPITALISATIONS

There were 1,422 patients warded in hospital, most of whom are well and under observation, said MOH.

Among them were 243 cases of serious illness who required oxygen supplementation, and 31 in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU). Of those who had fallen very ill, 233 were above the age of 60.

Over the last 28 days, the percentage of local cases who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms was 98.2 per cent.

In that period, 504 cases required oxygen supplementation and 53 had been in the ICU. Of these 50.6 per cent were fully vaccinated and 49.4 per cent were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

ACTIVE CLUSTERS

MOH said it was currently “closely monitoring” 13 active clusters, including nine dormitories and the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre.

Toa Payoh/Kim Keat Avenue Dormitory was added to the list on Saturday. The dormitory currently has 22 confirmed cases.

Another 41 cases have been added to the Blue Stars Dormitory cluster, which is currently the biggest active cluster. The second-biggest Avery Lodge cluster also added 18 new cases.

All the dormitory clusters involve intra-dormitory transmission amongst residents with no evidence of spread beyond the dormitory, said MOH.

VACCINATIONS

As of Friday, 82 per cent of Singapore’s population has completed their full vaccination regimen or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, while 85 per cent has received at least one dose.

More than 9.2 million doses have been administered under the national vaccination programme, including 258,043 booster jabs, MOH said.

Another 200,358 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s emergency list have been administered, covering 102,915 people.

SHORTER STAY-HOME-NOTICE FOR TRAVELLERS

MOH on Saturday announced that travellers who currently have to serve a 14-day stay-home-notice upon arriving in Singapore will only need to serve 10 days starting 11.59pm on Wednesday.

This is in line with the shortening of local quarantine periods, which have taken into consideration the shorter incubation period of the Delta coronavirus variant, it said.

COVID-19 multi-ministry task force co-chair Gan Kim Yong said the daily number of cases in Singapore may rise to more than 5,000 next week, with the number of community cases now doubling every 10 days.

“The vast majority, however, will be asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms and can recover swiftly at home," Mr Gan said during a multi-ministry task force press conference.

Although the daily number of cases has continued to rise, the rate of increase “appears to have slowed down slightly”, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a press release. 

“The time taken for the doubling of community cases has lengthened from about eight days to about 10 days,” MOH said.