75% of Singapore’s population had already been vaccinated

Last updated on July 27th, 2021 at 01:14 am

Government data shows that three quarters of Singapore’s COVID-19 infections in the last four weeks were among vaccinated individuals as the country accelerate its vaccinations which leaves only a small number of unvaccinated people.

About 75% of Singapore’s population of 5.7 million people had already been vaccinated which ranked the country as the world’s second highest after the United Arab Emirates.

In the last 28 days, a number of 1,096 locally transmitted cases have been reported, 44% of which were fully vaccinated people, 30% of which were partially vaccinated and the remaining 25% were unvaccinated.

According to the health ministry, only seven severe cases requiring oxygen support have been reported. Six out of the seven were unvaccinated, while the other one has been administered with the first dose of the vaccine.

The ministry added that evidence shows the efficacy of vaccination in preventing serious disease in case of infection. They said that all of the fully vaccinated and infected people showed no symptoms or mild symptoms.

Experts asserted that vaccinated people getting infected does not mean vaccines are not effective.

The dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Teo Yik Ying said that in vaccinating more people in Singapore, there will be more occurrences of infections among the groups who have gotten their vaccine.

He added that it is significant to get a comparison between the proportions of the vaccinated to those who remain unvaccinated. He said that suppose Singapore achieves a rate of 100% fully vaccinated, then all infections will stem from the vaccinated people and none from the unvaccinated.

The data gathered also shows that in the last 14 days among those who are vaccinated, infections occurring among the people aged over 61 were at about 88%, which is higher than the younger age group. Linfa Wang, a professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, said elderly people have been shown to have weaker immune responses upon vaccination.