Increase in number of Covid-19 patients in ICU; 10 new clusters detected

• The number of Covid-19 patients under intensive care went up to eight as of Aug 5
• The number of patients in need of oxygen aid went down slightly to 40
• The number of Covid-19 patients who are hospitalised went up to 577 from 555 the day before
• As of Aug 4, 65 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated
• The Government is relaxing border controls for travellers from Taiwan from Aug 8
   

SINGAPORE — The number of Covid-19 patients in Singapore who are in intensive care units (ICUs) has risen to eight, while 10 new clusters of infections linked to different individuals were reported on Thursday (Aug 5).

In addition, there are 40 patients in serious condition who need oxygen support to help them breathe, down from 42 a day ago, data from the Ministry of Health (MOH) showed.

The eight in intensive care is one more than the day before. 

Among these eight patients and the 40 with serious illness, seven are fully vaccinated.

Five of the seven need oxygen support and the other two are under intensive care because they have underlying medical conditions, MOH said in its nightly update on the coronavirus situation here.

As of Thursday, 36 seniors above 60 years old have fallen very ill, of whom 31 are not vaccinated or partially vaccinated, MOH added.

Over the last 28 days, 80 local cases required oxygen supplementation, were admitted to the ICUs or died.

“Forty-eight were unvaccinated, 24 were partially vaccinated and eight were fully vaccinated,” the ministry said.

There are 577 Covid-19 patients who are hospitalised as of Thursday.

UPDATED BORDER MEASURES FOR TAIWAN

In a separate statement, MOH said that Singapore will relax its border measures for travellers from Taiwan as the Covid-19 situation there “has improved”.

People who have a travel history to Taiwan in the past 21 days will just need to undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test upon arrival here and can go about their activities if their test result is negative, MOH said.

“They will not need to serve a 14-day stay-home notice period,” the ministry added.

Right now, these travellers have been subjected to an on-arrival PCR test, a 14-day stay-home notice at a dedicated facility and another PCR test before the end of the stay-home order.

The new requirement for travellers from Taiwan will kick in from 11.59pm on Aug 7.

Short-term visitors with travel history to Taiwan can now apply for an Air Travel Pass for entry into Singapore on or after Aug 12.

“They will undergo a Covid-19 PCR test upon arrival and will be allowed to go about their activities in Singapore if the PCR test result is negative,” MOH said.

Travellers who are still serving their 14-day stay-home notice at their place of residence as of 11.59 pm on Aug 7 will still be required to complete the 14-day order and the exit swab.

10 NEW CLUSTERS

The formation of 10 new Covid-19 clusters — all of which have been linked to different individuals — meant that there are now 122 active clusters here, each having between three and 1,127 cases.

Earlier, MOH said that there were 96 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases confirmed on Thursday, including 38 that were not linked to earlier infections.

For the 58 cases linked to previous infections, 38 had already been placed under quarantine and the other 20 were detected through surveillance testing.

Among the new cases are two seniors aged above 70 who are not vaccinated or partially vaccinated and at risk of serious illness.

Besides the locally transmitted cases, there were two imported cases, making it a total of 98 new Covid-19 cases confirmed on Thursday.

The imported cases had been isolated on arrival in Singapore. One was detected upon arrival and the other developed the disease while serving a stay-home notice or in isolation.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has gone down from 881 in the week before to 723 in the past week.

The number of cases with no known links in the community has, however, gone up slightly from 223 in the week before to 228 in the past week.

The seven-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 70.7 and 32.6 respectively, MOH said.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Singapore is now 65,508.

VACCINATIONS

As of Wednesday, 65 per cent of the population had completed their full regimen or received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme, while 78 per cent had received at least one dose.

In addition, 115,970 doses of Sinovac vaccines had been administered as of Wednesday, covering 77,095 people.