2 new Covid-19 clusters: Jurong East bus interchange, Homestay Lodge dormitory
Jurong East Bus Interchange and Homestay Lodge number among 66 active clusters, which have between three and 1,155 infections each.
PHOTO: Lianhe Zaobao, Google Maps
PUBLISHED ONAugust 29, 2021 1:04 AMByTay Hong Yi
SINGAPORE - Staff at Jurong East Bus Interchange and Homestay Lodge, a foreign workers' dormitory, formed the two new Covid-19 clusters uncovered by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday (Aug 28).
The Jurong East Bus Interchange, with 14 cases, is the sixth active cluster involving staff at a bus interchange.
Homestay Lodge, located at Kaki Bukit Avenue 3, has five cases.
They number among 66 active clusters, which have between three and 1,155 infections each.
These cases were among 113 new locally transmitted coronavirus patients uncovered as at Saturday noon. Of these, 25 cases were linked to the Bugis Junction cluster.
This brings the total number of cases in the cluster, which was first uncovered on Tuesday, to 176.
Of the remaining 88 cases, 32 were linked to previous cases and had already been quarantined.
Another 27 linked cases were not in quarantine when they tested positive.
The remaining 29 were unlinked cases.
There were also eight imported cases that were detected and placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.
Four cases were detected upon arrival in Singapore, while the other four developed the illness while in isolation or serving stay-home notice.
In total, there were 121 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on Saturday, bringing the country's total to 67,171.
There are currently 389 cases hospitalised, 16 of whom have serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation. Six are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Of the very ill, 16 are seniors aged above 60, and of them, 11 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
MOH said there is continuing evidence that almost all fully vaccinated individuals do not suffer serious disease when infected, unless they have underlying medical conditions that make them more susceptible.
Over the past 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated people who became severely ill or died is 9.2 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated is 1.2 per cent, it added.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 260 cases in the week before to 551 cases in the past week.
The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 82 cases in the week before to 144 cases in the past week.
As of Friday, 79 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, while 83 per cent have received at least one dose.
A total of 8,667,278 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme, covering 4,500,430 people, with 4,291,659 people having completed the full vaccination regimen.
In addition, 164,336 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organisation's Emergency Use Listing have been administered, covering 85,489 people.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
