Months ago, if we checked our phones and saw that nearly 50 new local infections were reported, we’d probably drop our phones to the floor in shock.
But after having over 100 new cases daily in the past month, we’re thankful to have such a low number.
Yes, slowly but surely, the number of new community cases, new clusters, and new unlinked cases are going down.
Yesterday (16 Aug), 48 new locally transmitted cases were recorded, of whom nine are unlinked.
Here are the details:
Sole New COVID-19 Cluster is a Dorm
Only one new COVID-19 cluster was reported, identified at 43 Sungei Kadut Loop dormitory. The cluster has 13 infections.
Other existing clusters grew, including the Bishan bus interchange staff cluster which had five new cases added to it yesterday. It now has 15 infections.
Four more infections were also linked to the My First Skool preschool cluster at Chin Swee Road, bringing its total to 34.
Though no new cases have been added to the Jurong Fishery Port/ Hong Lim Market & Food Centre cluster for several days, it remains our biggest active cluster with 1,155 cases.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said it closed four clusters yesterday, meaning we now have 99 active clusters in the country.
426 Cases in Hospital; 7 in ICU
Currently, there are 426 COVID-19 cases in hospitals, most of whom are well and under observation.
33 severe cases require oxygen supplementation, and seven are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Seven of these 40 cases are fully vaccinated.
32 of them are patients above 60 who have fallen very ill; six of them are fully vaccinated.
The percentage of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients who became severely ill or died in the last 28 days was 9.8%, compared to 1.2% for vaccinated cases.
Vaccination Progress: 76%
Just like downloading a large file on Windows 95, our vaccination progress is consistently going up by one percentage point every day.
As of Sunday (15 Aug), 76% of our population has been fully vaccinated. 82% have received at least one dose of a vaccine.
This includes 65,512 recipients of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s emergency use listing.
Hospital Visits to Resume
On Thursday (19 Aug), hospitals will reopen their doors to visitors, after a two-week suspension.
However, only vaccinated individuals and those who have recovered from COVID-19 in the last 270 days and have a valid pre-event test exemption notice will be able to enter hospital wards.
Unvaccinated visitors will have to present a negative pre-visit COVID-19 test, which they will have to pay for themselves.
This can either be an ART or PCR test, but the test must be done under the supervision of MOH-approved COVID-19 test providers.
Partially vaccinated visitors will be exempted from this requirement, but only temporarily until 1 Oct, when they too will have to provide a negative COVID-19 test.
Each visit will be limited to 30 minutes, regardless of vaccination status. Hospitals may extend this limit, but this will be given on a conditional, case-by-case basis. Some examples include paediatric patients and birthing or post-partum mothers.
Each patient can get up to two visits a day, and have up to two visitors for each visit, though only one is allowed to be at the bedside.
Severely ill patients will be allowed five visitors, with two allowed at the bedside.
Of course, regardless of one’s vaccination status, you should not visit someone in hospital if you feel unwell.
Read Also:
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Featured Image: Google Maps
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