Up to 75% of new Covid cases in Singapore are in vaccinated people but getting jab lowers chances of serious illness, figures show

Some 75% of people who got infected with Covid-19 in Singapore recently had been previously inoculated. None of them, however, got seriously ill, the health authorities said, encouraging further vaccinations.

In the last 28 days, 1,096 locally transmitted cases were detected in the country, freshly released statistics show. Some 48% of those who fell ill had been fully vaccinated, while a further 30% received only one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The rest of those who contracted coronavirus had not received any jabs at all. The fresh statistics reinforce the idea that, if not preventing the disease entirely, vaccination significantly lowers the chances of people becoming critically ill.

"There is continuing evidence that vaccination helps to prevent serious disease when one gets infected. Over the last 28 days, seven local cases required oxygen supplementation, were admitted to ICU or passed away. Six are unvaccinated, one is partially vaccinated and none was fully vaccinated," the Singaporean health ministry said in a statement.

The high numbers of vaccinated people who got ill does not mean that vaccines are ineffective, particularly given extremely high inoculation rates in the country, health experts have noted.

"As more and more people are vaccinated in Singapore, we will see more infections happening among vaccinated people," Teo Yik Ying, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore said, as quoted by Reuters. "It is important to always compare it against the proportion of people who remain unvaccinated."

Around 75% of 5.7 million people living in Singapore have received at least one jab of a coronavirus vaccine. Around a half of the population in the country, which boasts one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, has been already inoculated in full.

Singapore has fared extremely well in the pandemic, registering only some 63,700 cases of the disease. It also boasts very low mortality rates, with only 36 people in the country succumbing to the disease thus far.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!