News

Bugis Junction & Bus Interchange Clusters Continue to Grow; S’pore Now Has 70 Active Clusters

2021-09-01 , 9:13 am

Unlike a war, which eventually has a winner, our duel with COVID-19 seems to be like our attempts to cut down on bubble tea; it’s an ongoing battle that’ll probably never end.

Cases and clusters continue to grow, but most importantly, so do infections with no established links.

Here are the details:

156 Locally Transmitted Cases, More Than Half Unlinked

156 new locally transmitted cases were reported yesterday, including 29 who were detected through surveillance testing.

This is the highest number of locally transmitted cases since 22 Jul, when 162 cases were recorded.

What’s more concerning is that more than half of the new local infections – 79 cases – were unlinked.

Bugis Junction & Bus Interchange Clusters Continue to Grow

11 of the new cases were linked to the Bugis Junction cluster, which now has 222 infections.

26 infections were linked to the bus interchange staff clusters, affecting six of the eight active bus interchange clusters. They are:

Tampines bus interchange – two new cases, 20 in total
Boon Lay bus interchange – 13 new cases, 50 in total
Jurong East bus interchange – two new cases, 26 in total
Toa Payoh bus interchange – seven new cases, 85 in total
Bishan bus interchange – one new case, 27 in total
Punggol bus interchange – one new case, 30 in total

Several other clusters grew as well, including ones linked to a dorm and the Institute of Mental Health (IMH). They are:

North Coast Lodge – 15 new cases, 166 in total
Homestay Lodge – one new case, 14 in total
IMH – two new cases, eight in total
Bangkit 257 Coffee House – one new case, five in total

Two new clusters were also reported, both linked to individual cases with three and four cases respectively.

In total, there are 70 active clusters in the country, ranging between three to 1,155 infections.

463 Cases in Hospitals; 5 in ICU

At the moment, there are 463 COVID-19 cases in hospitals, most of whom are well and under observation.

19 severe cases require oxygen supplementation, while five are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Of these 24 cases, 15 are above the age of 60. Eight of them are partially vaccinated or completely unvaccinated.

As of Monday (30 Aug), 80% of our population has been fully vaccinated, while 83% have received at least one dose.

Singapore to Send 500,000 Vaccine Doses to Australia; Same Amount Will Be Returned Later

Many countries are struggling with COVID-19 at the moment, and we all could certainly use some help.

This is why Singapore is sending 500,000 vaccine doses to Australia, as part of a “dose sharing agreement”.

The same amount will be returned to Singapore in December, and could potentially be used as booster shots for some segments of our population.