In terms of good news, yesterday was an almost perfect day.
The authorities announced that our Stabilisation Phase will end on 21 Nov as planned, meaning people can socialise and dine out in groups of up to five. (Dining in groups of five will only apply to fully vaccinated people at hawker centres and coffee shops).
Our daily caseload also stayed under 2,000, and our overall intensive care unit (ICU) utilisation rate fell further, down to 56.8%.
Sadly, one statistic that did not fall far enough was the number of fatalities reported.
13 COVID-19 Deaths
13 more COVID-19 cases succumbed to the virus, bringing our death toll to 654.
Aged between 62 and 98, all of them had various underlying medical conditions except for an unvaccinated case.
1,931 New COVID-19 Cases
1,931 new COVID-19 cases were reported yesterday (20 Nov), an increase of 197 from the previous day’s tally.
The cases comprise 1,867 infections in the community, 58 in migrant worker dormitories, and six imported infections.
Among the local cases are 333 seniors above 60.
MOH Closely Monitoring 6 Large Clusters
The Ministry of Health (MOH) is closely monitoring six large clusters with new cases, the largest of which is at the Institute of Mental Health, with 430 infections. 402 residents and 28 staff members have been infected there.
Two cases were linked to the Sunlove Senior Care Centre @ 70 Buangkok View, taking its total to 12. Of the 12 cases, two are staff, seven are clients, and three are household members.
The cluster at Pacific Healthcare Nursing Home in 6 Lengkok Bahru grew to 13 after four more cases were linked to it. All cases at the nursing home are residents.
One case each was also added to the three remaining clusters:
- Jenaris Home @ Pelangi Village – 74 cases
- Jamiyah Nursing Home – 29 cases
- Iman Childcare (Woodgrove) 37 cases
1,367 COVID-19 Cases in Hospital; 100 in ICU
At the moment, there are 1,367 COVID-19 cases warded in hospitals, most of whom are well and under observation.
199 serious cases require oxygen supplementation and 110 are in the intensive care unit, comprising 40 cases who are unstable and under close monitoring, and 60 who are critically ill and intubated.
Our ICU utilisation rate is currently at 56.8%., which is the lowest since MOH first released information on it on 25 Oct, when the rate was 83.6%.
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 4.8 per 100,000 population respectively.
The same figures for seniors aged 60 and above are 1.9 and 42.3 respectively.
Over the same period, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who died are 0.1 and 1.0 per 100,000 population respectively.
The same figures for seniors aged 60 and above are 0.2 and 10. 4 respectively.
Currently, 85% of our population has been fully vaccinated and 86% have received at least one dose. 23% have received their booster shots.
Weekly Infection Growth Rate Increases Slightly
Our weekly infection growth went up to 0.78 from the 0.77 reported on Friday.
This refers to the ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before.
It has stayed below 1.0 for eight consecutive days, which is possibly one of the many reasons the authorities decided to ease restrictions.
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