Covid-19: 111 new locally transmitted cases in Singapore, including 24 linked to North Coast Lodge dormitory

SINGAPORE — There were 111 new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 reported on Tuesday (Aug 24), including 33 that were not linked to earlier infections.

This is the highest tally for locally transmitted cases since Aug 1, when 113 such infections were recorded.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its nightly update of the coronavirus situation that of the 111 cases, 24 have been traced to the North Coast Lodge, a migrant worker dormitory in Woodlands. The cluster now has 86 cases.

Testing operations at North Coast Lodge have been completed and all the results have come back, MOH said, though it did not mention what the results were. 

In all, more than 5,300 residents at the dormitory were swabbed over the past three days.

Of the remaining locally transmitted cases, 54 were linked to previous infections. Of these, 24 had already been quarantined and another 30 were detected through surveillance testing.

Among the cases are four seniors above the age of 70 who are not vaccinated or partially vaccinated, and are at risk of serious illness.

There were also five imported cases confirmed for the day.

Four were detected on arrival and the remaining one developed the illness while in isolation.

This brought the total number of new cases for Tuesday to 116.

Singapore has recorded 66,692 coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone down from 322 in the week before to 290 in the past week.

The number of cases with no known links in the community has, however, gone up from 83 in the week before to 121 in the past week.

The seven-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 24.1 and 17.3 respectively.

NEW CLUSTERS

There were three new Covid-19 clusters reported on Tuesday, MOH said.

The first was linked to the Bugis Junction mall, where 20 workers have contracted the disease.

Another cluster was traced to the Selarang Halfway House and the third was linked to an individual.

Three other clusters were closed, bringing the number of active Covid-19 clusters here to 70.

There are 339 patients who are hospitalised.

Data from MOH showed that the number of patients who are under intensive care has remained constant at seven since Aug 20.

There are 20 patients who are seriously ill and need oxygen support to help them breathe, a slight dip from the 21 reported the day before.

Among these 20 patients and the seven under intensive care, four are fully vaccinated.

Of those who have fallen very ill, 23 are patients aged above 60, of whom 19 are not vaccinated or partially vaccinated.

Over the last 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated who became severely ill or died is 8.7 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated is 1.6 per cent.

VACCINATIONS

As of Aug 23, 78 per cent of the population had completed their full regimen or received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and 82 per cent had received at least one dose.

For other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing such as Sinovac, 160,649 doses had been administered as of Aug 23, covering 85,114 individuals.