As of Tuesday noon (31 Aug), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed an additional 161 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore.
This brings the total number of infection cases to 67,620.
There are 156 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection, of which 48 are linked to previous cases, and have already been placed on quarantine.
29 are linked to previous cases and were detected through surveillance. 79 are currently unlinked.
Amongst the cases are two seniors above 70 years who are unvaccinated/ partially vaccinated, and are at risk of serious illness.
In addition, there are five imported cases, who have already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) or isolated upon arrival in Singapore. Three were detected upon arrival in Singapore, while two developed the illness during SHN or isolation.
The Ministry will share further updates in its press release tonight.
Condition of confirmed cases & progress of national vaccination programme
According to last night’s press release, 441 cases are currently warded in hospital. Most are well and under observation.
There are currently 19 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation, and 5 in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU).
“As of 29 August 2021, we have administered a total of 8,695,034 doses of COVID-19 vaccines under the national vaccination programme (Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty and Moderna), covering 4,507,685 individuals, with 4,309,977 individuals having completed the full vaccination regimen.” The Ministry added.
“In addition, 166,142 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing (WHO EUL) have been administered as of 29 August 2021, covering 85,584 individuals. In total, 80% of our population has completed their full regimen/ received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and 83% has received at least one dose.”
MOH to stop providing details of COVID-19 community cases
As Singapore moves towards a new phase of battling the pandemic, the MOH said in a statement on 29 June that it will no longer disclose details of each new COVID-19 case detected in the community.
“Besides daily numbers, we will include information on the key trends of the local situation, clusters we are monitoring, progress of vaccination and the number of people who suffered a severe form of the disease,” said the Ministry.
According to the MOH, this decision was made by the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force, with a “strong focus on preventing the virus from spreading, vaccinating our population and starting the process to transit to a new normal”.
