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Singapore has vaccinated the majority of its population, but in recent days it has again seen a record increase in new cases of Covid-19.
Coronavirus infections in the Southeast Asian city-state hit new highs over the past week, with 2,909 new infections reported on Friday, the highest number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic, the health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
But authorities have urged residents to remain calm, as more than 98% of newly reported cases were mild or asymptomatic and can therefore be treated at home. One of the reasons for the mild cases is that Singapore has vaccinated 82% of its eligible population, drastically reducing cases of severe illness, officials said.
“We have said before that because of our high vaccination rate, we are no longer just focusing on the headlines,” Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said at a press conference on Saturday morning with d ‘ other officials. “We focus on the critically ill and make sure our health system is able to take care of them.”
About 2% of new cases required hospitalization, the health ministry said. As of Friday, 1,356 people were being treated in hospitals. Of these, 222 needed oxygen and 34 were in intensive care.
Officials have not provided any explanation as to what led to the outbreak, which is doubling cases every 10 days. Singaporeans and the country’s migrant workers are undergoing routine testing, which finds many asymptomatic cases. It is not yet known how many of the newly reported cases were breakthrough infections in those vaccinated.
Health officials have estimated that the city-state will soon surpass 3,200 daily cases and may even start seeing as many as 5,000 cases per day around mid-October.
In migrant dormitories, once a hotspot for Singapore’s previous outbreaks, an average of 500 positive cases per day have been reported recently, said Tan See Leng, the Minister of Manpower. Much of these cases have been asymptomatic, however, and 90 percent of the workers in the dormitories have been vaccinated.
Still, Kenneth Mak, the director of medical services at the Department of Health, has predicted that hospitals will likely be overwhelmed this month, mostly by unvaccinated patients over the age of 60. He said the unvaccinated population is 14 times more likely to show severe symptoms of Covid. -19.
To curb the increase in new cases, the health ministry has put in place tighter restrictions on social distancing and social gatherings. The new rules limit gatherings to two people and include a default work-from-home policy.
Singapore will also continue to impose severe restrictions on hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, who have been forced to live in isolation when not working since the start of the pandemic.
Other new protocols implemented aim to add resources and staff to hospitals. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said the country faces a shortage of hospital beds because doctors too often admit patients for close monitoring even if they do not require serious care.
Mr Kung said the health ministry will increase the total number of beds for coronavirus patients in hospitals and so-called Covid treatment facilities to 3,700. The ministry is also seeking to open more such treatment facilities and has recommended that citizens vaccinated with Covid-19 take care of themselves at home to offload hospitals.
As the United States passed the 700,000 death mark from Covid-19 on Friday, public health officials have not lost sight of the fact that many of the recent deaths could have been prevented had more Americans chosen to get vaccinated.
The majority of the 100,000 Americans who died in the past three and a half months were not vaccinated even though vaccines were plentiful and available to all adults. All three vaccines used in the United States have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death. President Biden issued a statement on Saturday saying that “the astonishing death toll is another reminder of the importance of getting vaccinated.“
“Hundreds of thousands of families have been spared the unbearable loss that too many Americans have already suffered during this pandemic,” Biden said. “If you haven’t already, please get vaccinated. It can save your life and the lives of those you love. It will help us beat Covid-19 and move forward, together, as one nation. “
In the United States, about 76% of people eligible for vaccination have received at least one dose and 65% are fully vaccinated, according to the New York Times. The CDC also reported that approximately 4.7 million fully vaccinated people have received an additional dose of vaccine since August 13, the day after the FDA opened eligibility for a third injection for some people whose system immune system is weakened.
Almost all 67,000 United Airlines employees in the United States have been vaccinated against Covid-19 after one of the largest and most important corporate vaccination campaigns in the United States.
The surge came out of sheer frustration at the fatal consequences of the disease, Scott Kirby, chief executive of United Airlines, told The Times on Thursday.
Mr Kirby said he hit a breaking point over the summer, after discovering that a 57-year-old United pilot had died after contracting the coronavirus. “We have concluded that this is enough,” he said. “People are dying and we can do something to stop this with United Airlines. “
At the time, Mr Kirby estimated that about 70% of airline employees were vaccinated. To raise that level, the company announced a vaccine tenure in early August and offered incentives, like extra pay or vacation days for compliance. United has also contacted the unions representing its workers. Still, some employees have resisted and the company is considering tougher measures.
Around 2,000 employees have requested medical or religious exemptions, though their fate remains uncertain as United battles a lawsuit over plans to put them on temporary leave. A few hundred more did not respect the mandate and could be made redundant in the coming weeks.
The airline received praise from President Biden, who announced in early September that all U.S. companies with 100 or more employees should require weekly vaccinations or tests.
American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue have since issued vaccination warrants, citing demands from the Biden administration. In late August, Delta announced that it would charge its unvaccinated employees an additional $ 200 per month for health insurance.
Alaska is facing the nation’s worst coronavirus outbreak, with new infections peaking recently and hospitalizations still on the rise, even though the state’s natural isolation had largely protected its population in previous waves .
Almost two years after the virus began to circulate in the United States, the country’s northernmost state is now facing a crisis reminiscent of the darkest start of the pandemic, with test supplies depleted, patients treated in the hallways and doctors rationing oxygen. With emergency rooms overwhelmed, the governor asked hundreds of medical workers to come from across the country to help them.
“We are imposed to the point of deciding who will live and who will not,” said Dr. Steven Floerchinger, a physician at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, the state’s largest hospital.
Despite this, political opposition to measures to curb the virus remains strong and some pockets of the state are reluctant to be vaccinated.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, has avoided approving a mask mandate or other restrictions to reduce the virus. Doctors and nurses who spoke to the Anchorage Assembly, as it considered a mask warrant this week, have been taunted and harassed by opponents of the pandemic restrictions. The debate was to continue for a fourth day on Monday.
While much of the country’s hospital system is under strain, it is easier in the lower 48 contiguous states to transfer patients to medical facilities in neighboring cities or across state borders.
Some Alaskan hospitals operate under “crisis care standards” that allow them to ration health care to care for the most needy patients or share limited resources among those in their hospital beds.
This meant that doctors in some places had to make tough triage decisions. When Providence Alaska Medical Center was hit by a deluge of coronavirus patients a recent night, doctors had to decide whether the last spot on the intensive care unit should go to one of the Covid patients in the ward. emergency or someone in a remote town who needed to be airlifted for emergency surgery.
Dr Floerchinger gathered with his colleagues for a nerve-racking discussion. They had a better chance of saving one of the emergency room patients, they determined. The other would have to wait.
This patient is deceased. “It’s heartbreaking, and I never thought I would see it,” Dr. Floerchinger said.
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