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The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 98 new cases of Covid-19 in Singapore on Monday (Aug. 23).
This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 66,576.
86-year-old unvaccinated Singaporean passes away
Case 67375, an 86-year-old female Singaporean, has passed away from complications due to Covid-19 infection on Aug. 23.
She had been admitted to Changi General Hospital on Jul. 23 for an unrelated medical condition, and tested negative for Covid-19 during admission and again on Jul. 29.
She was detected when she was tested on Aug. 2, as she had been identified as a close contact of a patient who was a confirmed case.
She had not been vaccinated against Covid-19, and had a history of cancer and hypertension.
In total, 50 have passed away from complications due to Covid-19 infection.
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, MOH said.
Over the last 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated who became severely ill or died is 8.8 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated is 1.7 per cent.
Most of the deaths are from infections earlier in August: Ong Ye Kung
There have been 13 Covid-19-related deaths in August.
In a Facebook post on Monday (Aug. 23) evening, Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung addressed the spate of deaths, and explained that MOH had looked into the situation in order to better understand it.
To do so, they looked at the date that patients who were admitted into the ICU or passed away were detected to have Covid-19.
For example, someone who tested positive for Covid-19 on Aug. 1 and then deteriorated and was admitted to the ICU or passed away on Aug. 19 would be plotted on the chart as a data point on Aug. 1, rather than Aug. 10.
The chart that he shared, as seen below, showed that most of the deaths that have occurred recently involved patients who were infected earlier in the month.
Photo via Facebook / Ong Ye Kung.
"Then, we had more daily cases and importantly, fewer people were vaccinated (11 out of the 12 patients who passed away were not fully vaccinated)," Ong said.
"It remains important to get vaccinated. I have met many residents who are worried about getting vaccinated because they have some underlying illnesses, or they fall sick easily.
In many of such instances, they need the vaccines even more because the chances of them falling very sick if infected with Covid-19 is much higher."
94 new locally-transmitted cases
There are 94 cases of locally-transmitted Covid-19 infection.
59 of the cases are linked to North Coast Lodge, and were detected through testing operations conducted from Aug. 21 after three residents at the dormitory tested positive for Covid-19 infection during their Rostered Routine Testing.
Apart from the 59 dormitory cases, 16 are linked to previous cases, and have already been placed on quarantine.
19 cases are currently unlinked.
Amongst the cases are two seniors above 70 who are unvaccinated, and are at risk of serious illness, said MOH.
There are four imported cases, who have already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.
Two were detected upon arrival in Singapore, while two developed the illness during SHN or isolation.
Top photo via Google Maps / Gregory Athanasius.
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