News

2,553 COVID-19 Cases Reported on 7 Nov with 17 Deaths; 5th Day Whereby Weekly Infection Growth is Below 1

2021-11-08 , 7:42 am

Towards the end of September, the government tightened COVID-19 restrictions once again, to the disappointment of some.

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong explained that the authorities needed time to prepare more medical centres to handle the larger influx of COVID-19 patients, as cases were expected to shoot up to 5,000.

It’s now a month later, and thanks to the restrictions, the cases have only surpassed the 5,000 mark once, with the daily caseload hovering around the 3,000 to 4,000 range.

It fell below 3,000 yesterday, but sadly, many COVID-19 patients continue to succumb to the disease.

17 COVID-19 Fatalities

17 more COVID-19 cases died from complications, bringing our death toll to 497.

Aged between 45 and 89, all of them had various underlying medical conditions, except for an 85-year-old vaccinated person who had no known medical condition.

2,553 New COVID-19 Cases

2,553 new COVID-19 cases were reported yesterday (7 Nov), a decrease of 482 from the previous day’s tally.

The cases comprise 2,343 infections in the community, 205 in migrant worker dormitories, and five imported infections.

Among the local cases are 425 seniors above 60.

MOH Closely Monitoring 8 Large Clusters

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is closely monitoring eight large clusters with new cases, the largest of which is at the Institute of Mental Health.

The cluster swelled to 389 after seven more cases were added to it. Of the 389 cases, 25 are staff members and 364 are patients.

Nine more infections were linked to Acacia Home, taking its total to 41. 39 residents and two staff members have been infected there.

Two cases each were also added to the Surya Home and Jenaris Home@ Pelaris Village, taking their totals to 16 and 29 respectively.

The MWW Nursing Home in Yew Tee also grew to 10 after seven more cases were added. All 10 cases are residents.

The remaining three clusters grew by one infection each:

Jamiyah Home for the Aged (Tampines) – 60 cases
NTUC Health Nursing Home (Geylang East) – 18 cases
PCF Sparkletots @ Whampoa Block 85 – 25 cases

1,654 COVID-19 Cases in Hospital; 134 in ICU

At the moment, there are 1,654 COVID-19 cases warded in hospitals, most of whom are well and under observation.

296 serious cases require oxygen supplementation and 134 are in the intensive care unit, comprising 70 cases who are unstable and under close monitoring, and 64 who are critically ill and intubated.

Over the past seven days, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who have been critically ill in the ICU are at 0.5 and 5.1 per 100,000 population respectively.

The same figures for seniors aged 60 and above are 1.8 and 42.3 respectively.

Over the same period, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who died are 0.1 and 0.9 per 100,000 population respectively.

The same figures for seniors aged 60 and above are 0.3 and 9.0 respectively.

Currently, 85% of our population has been fully vaccinated and 86% have received at least one dose. 18% have received their booster shots.

5th Day Whereby Weekly Infection Growth is Below 1

Yesterday was the fifth day in a row where the weekly infection growth rate was below 1.

This refers to the ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before.

As of yesterday, the weekly infection growth rate was 0.81, down from the 0.83 reported on Saturday.

MOH: Anti-Vaccination Videos Removed By YouTube

In a separate news release, MOH revealed that anti-vaccination videos on a YouTube channel set up by Ms Iris Koh have been removed by YouTube.

According to the health ministry, Ms Koh founded a group called “Healing the Divide”, which adopts an anti-vaccination stance and claims to warn people about the dangers of vaccination.

“The Government takes a serious view of the deliberate communication of these falsehoods and will not hesitate to take action against those who put the public’s health and well-being at risk by spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines,” it said.

The ministry advised members of the public not to speculate or spread misinformation which may cause public alarm, and to refer to credible sources of information instead.