Unless you’ve deliberately avoided paying your internet bills, you’re probably aware that we’re not doing too well with COVID-19 at the moment.
Over a hundred new cases are reported every day, and new clusters are popping up faster than pimples on a teenager’s face.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the situation is going to improve any time soon.
Experts Predict More Severe COVID-19 Cases as Numbers to Triple in 2 Weeks
Well, at least that’s what the experts think.
See, the number of severe COVID-19 cases – those requiring intensive care or oxygen supplementation – has tripled over the last two weeks.
Experts believe this number will continue to rise, if our daily case count doesn’t fall.
Why is this the case? One word: more unvaccinated seniors among new cases.
Reader: That’s like six words.
As Professor Dale Fisher, an infectious disease expert, told ST, the number of infected unvaccinated seniors has more than doubled in the last week.
And since they’re older and unvaccinated, they’re at a higher risk of falling severely ill from COVID-19.
As long as our case count remains high, a certain percentage of seniors are bound to get infected, and are more likely to suffer severe illness if they’re unvaccinated.
Another factor is the location of clusters: if a cluster emerges in an area frequently visited by seniors, the number of severe cases are also likely to go up.
Health Minister: We Returned to Phase 2 (HA) to Avoid Overwhelming our Healthcare System
Yesterday, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said the decision to return to Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) was made to prevent our healthcare system from being overwhelmed.
COVID-19 patients are only occupying a small number of beds at the moment, but due to the recent outbreaks, hospitals have had to open up 70 more beds, twice the number from two weeks ago.
According to Mr Ong, hospitals have opened up 1,000 for the pandemic, and around 80% were occupied by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases.
Noting how other countries have had their healthcare systems overwhelmed, Mr Ong said the authorities couldn’t allow a “human tragedy” like that to occur in Singapore.
Vaccination Rate For Seniors Increasing
It’s not all bad news though.
The vaccination rate for seniors seems to be increasing, as 75% of the older age groups have been vaccinated.
Two teams of researchers from the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health predicted that the risk of a COVID-19 case needing intensive care has fallen from around 2% to about 0.2%.
This statistic could fall further if more seniors get jabbed, so you know what to do.
Watch why you need to get vaccinated here:
Read Also:
- As of 28 Jun, Over 5M Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines Have Been Given & Over 2M S’poreans Have Been Fully Vaccinated
- Some Companies Are Offering Support Such as Off Days or Transport Reimbursement for Staff to Take COVID-19 Vaccine
Featured Image: Kobkit Chamchod/ Shutterstock.com
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