SINGAPORE - Three seniors have died of Covid-19 complications, bringing the total death toll in the country to 55.
All had not been vaccinated against the virus, said the Health Ministry on Friday (Aug 27).
"Of these, two cases were non-ambulatory and had limited movement outside of their homes, but yet had been infected as unlinked cases," said the ministry, in its nightly update.
The patients who died include an 80-year-old man who had no known medical conditions.
He tested positive on Aug 7 and was admitted to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital the same day. He died on Thursday.
A 70-year-old woman, who died on Friday, had been admitted to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) for an unrelated medical condition on Aug 11 and tested negative upon admission. Another test taken on Aug 17 came back positive.
She had a history of diabetes, heart disease, end-stage kidney failure, high blood pressure and hyperlipidaemia, or high levels of cholesterol.
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A 90-year-old woman, was also admitted to KTPH for an unrelated condition on Aug 18, had tested positive for the virus on Aug 19. She had a history of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and hyperlipidaemia, and died on Thursday.
Two new clusters were also uncovered, at Tuas South Lodge and among Clementi Bus Interchange staff.
Four cases have been linked to the Tuas South Lodge cluster, and seven among the Clementi Bus Interchange staff.
The cluster at Clementi Bus Interchange is the fifth active cluster to be found at a bus interchange.
There are 66 active clusters, ranging between three and 1,155 infections each.
In all, there were 120 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on Friday.
Of these, 47 new cases were added to the Bugis Junction cluster, which now has 151 cases.
Of the remaining 73 local cases, 31 were linked to previous cases and already quarantined. Another 16 linked cases were not in quarantine when they tested positive.
The remaining 26 were unlinked cases.
Among the cases are three seniors aged above 70 who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, and are at risk of serious illness, MOH said.
There were also two imported cases who were detected and placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore.
Both cases were detected upon arrival in Singapore.
In total, there were 122 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on Friday, bringing the country's total to 67,050.
There are currently 369 cases hospitalised, 13 of whom have serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation. Six are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Of the very ill, 15 are seniors aged above 60, and of them, 11 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
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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 1.3 per cent, it added.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has increased from 281 cases in the week before to 484 cases in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has increased from 81 cases in the week before to 133 cases in the past week.
As at Thursday, 79 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, while 83 per cent have received at least one dose.
A total of 8,647,565 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme, covering 4,494,681 people, with 4,278,869 people having completed the full vaccination regimen.
In addition, 163,009 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organisation's Emergency Use Listing have been administered, covering 85,390 people.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.