News

934 COVID-19 Cases Reported on 17 Sep; New Cluster at Sembcorp Marine Admiralty Yard

2021-09-18 , 9:35 am

If it weren’t for vaccinations, we’d be in a whole heap of trouble right now.

As Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said yesterday, we should be prepared to see daily COVID-19 cases exceed the 1,000th mark soon.

And if 82% of the population weren’t fully vaccinated, this would translate to a large number of seriously ill patients, and consequently, deaths.

Yesterday (17 Sep), for the second day running, infections surpassed the 900th mark.

Here are the details:

934 Locally Transmitted Cases

934 locally transmitted cases were recorded yesterday, 838 of whom were from the community.

The remaining 96 infections are from migrant workers’ dormitories. Among the local cases, 241 are seniors above the age of 60.

One imported case was also detected; they developed the illness during their quarantine.

New Cluster at Sembcorp Marine Admiralty Yard

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has discovered a new cluster at Sembcorp Marine Admiralty Yard, situated along Admiralty Road West.

With two new additions yesterday, the cluster now has 26 infections in total.

Transmission began at the workplace but eventually spread further to household contacts of cases.

Of the 26 cases, 23 are staff and three are household contacts of cases, MOH said.

MOH Monitoring 12 Large Clusters with New Cases

Including the new cluster at Sembcorp, the health ministry said it’s monitoring a total of 12 large clusters with new cases.

An existing cluster at Sembcorp Marine Tuas Boulevard Yard, which had two more infections linked to it yesterday, now has 107 cases, most of whom are residents of 38 Kian Teck Drive dormitory.

One of our largest active clusters now, linked to Chinatown Complex, has grown to 256 cases. The cases are made up of 187 stallholders and assistants, 11 cleaners or safe distancing ambassadors, and 58 household contacts of workers.

The cluster at Orange Valley Nursing Home in Simei has grown to 17, while two infections were added to the Changi General Hospital cluster, bringing its total to 73.

While transmission at the hospital began among facility management and support staff, it has since spread to close contacts of staff. No patients have been affected, however.

Three of our eight active clusters linked to staff working in bus interchanges also got bigger. They are:

Toa Payoh Bus Interchange staff – two new cases, 236 in total
Tampines Bus Interchange staff- three new cases, 137 in total
Punggol Bus Interchange staff – three new cases, 64 in total

At the moment, transmission has been limited to the workplace, and there’s no evidence of spread to commuters.

Two dorm clusters – at the Blue Stars Dormitory and Avery Lodge Dormitory – also grew to 71 and 95 cases respectively.

813 Cases in Hospitals; 14 in ICU

At present, there are 813 COVID-19 cases warded in the hospital, most of whom are well and under observation.

90 severe cases require oxygen supplementation, and 14 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU). A day earlier, 77 patients required oxygen supplementation, and 12 were in the ICU.

Of these 104 serious cases, 82 are seniors above the age of 60.

Our vaccination progress remains at 82%. 84% have received at least one dose.

Number of Serious Cases Remains Low

The good news is that while our cases are expected to surpass the 1,000th mark soon, the number of serious cases remains low.

As of 16 Sep, there were 77 serious cases who required oxygen support, with 12 in the intensive care unit. This is certainly a higher number than we’re used to seeing, but represents 0.1% of the total infections over the last 28 days.

So, what accounts for this statistic?

Vaccinations.

As Mr Ong explained:

“Because at this kind of infection rate, if we had not been vaccinated, our hospitals would have been overwhelmed already,” he said.

“But because we vaccinated everybody before we start opening up, we are able to sustain and be able to ride the wave so far.”

However, we still need other preventative measures to keep the coronavirus at bay, such as mask-wearing, treatment, and testing regimes.

Understand the importance of vaccination here: