Covid-19: 112 new locally transmitted cases in Singapore, including 40 linked to Bugis Junction cluster

SINGAPORE — There were 112 new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 reported on Thursday (Aug 26), including 24 that were not linked to earlier infections.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its nightly update of the coronavirus situation that 40 of the 112 cases were linked to a cluster at Bugis Junction mall.

The number of cases in the cluster has now grown to 104.

A day earlier, MOH announced that the BHG department store at Bugis Junction would be shut until Aug 30 to break any potential chain of Covid-19 transmission linked to it and enable deep cleaning of the premises.

The ministry had also extended free coronavirus testing to members of the public who visited the retail shops or used the services or facilities of the mall between Aug 17 and 24. Workers in affected shops will also be tested for Covid-19 and close contacts of confirmed cases quarantined. 

As the Bugis Junction cluster expanded, three new clusters were formed.

Two were linked to the Punggol and Toa Payoh bus interchanges with a combined 36 cases, MOH said.

The third new cluster was traced to Bangkit 257 Coffee House in Bukit Panjang, which has three confirmed cases.

Three other clusters were closed, bringing the number of active Covid-19 clusters here to 68.

Four imported infections made up the daily tally of 116 new cases.

Three of them were detected on arrival and the remaining case developed the illness while in isolation.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone up from 290 in the week before to 405 in the past week.

The number of cases with no known links in the community has also risen from 78 in the week before to 126 in the past week.

The seven-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 39.9 and 18.0 respectively.

A total of 66,928 coronavirus cases have been recorded here since the start of the pandemic last year.

PATIENTS IN HOSPITALS

There are 343 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 17 patients who are seriously ill and need oxygen support to help them breathe, a dip from the 19 reported the day before.

Among these 17 patients and the seven under intensive care, four are fully vaccinated.

Of those who have fallen very ill, 20 are patients aged above 60, of whom 16 are not vaccinated or partially vaccinated.

Over the last 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated who became severely ill or died is 9.7 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated is 1.4 per cent.

VACCINATIONS

As of Aug 25, 79 per cent of the population had completed their full regimen or received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and 83 per cent had received at least one dose.

For other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing such as Sinovac, 162,307 doses had been administered as of Aug 25, covering 85,325 individuals.