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Vaccinated people make up 75% of recent cases in Singapore
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accinated individuals accounted for three-quarters of Singapore's COVID-19 infections in the last four weeks, but they were not falling seriously ill, government data showed, as a rapid ramp-up in inoculations leaves fewer people unvaccinated.
While the data shows that vaccines are highly effective in preventing severe cases, it also underscores the risk that even those inoculated could be contagious, so that inoculation alone may not suffice to halt transmission.
Of Singapore's 1,096 locally transmitted infections in the last 28 days, 484, or about 44 percent, were in fully vaccinated people, while 30 percent were partially vaccinated and just over 25 percent were unvaccinated, Thursday's data showed.
While seven cases of serious illness required oxygen, and another was in critical condition in intensive care, none of the eight had been fully vaccinated, the health ministry said.
"There is continuing evidence that vaccination helps to prevent serious disease when one gets infected," the ministry said, adding that all the fully vaccinated and infected people had shown no symptoms, or only mild ones.
Infections in vaccinated people do not mean vaccines are ineffective, experts said.
"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 (NUS).
"It is important to always compare it against the proportion of people who remain unvaccinated [...] Suppose Singapore achieves a rate of 100 percent fully vaccinated [...] then all infections will stem from the vaccinated people and none from the unvaccinated."
Singapore has already inoculated nearly 75 percent of its 5.7 million people, the world's second highest after the United Arab Emirates, a Reuters tracker shows, and half its population is fully vaccinated.
As countries with advanced vaccination campaigns prepare to live with COVID-19 as an endemic disease, their focus is turning to preventing death and serious diseases through vaccination.
But they are grappling with how to differentiate public health policies, such as mask wearing, between the vaccinated and those who are not.
Both Singapore and Israel, for example, reinstated some curbs recently to battle a surge in infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, while England lifted almost all restrictions this week, despite high caseloads.
"We've got to accept that all of us will have to have some restrictions, vaccinated or not vaccinated," said Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist at Canberra Hospital in the Australian capital.
"It's just the restrictions are likely to be higher for those unvaccinated than vaccinated people, but that may still mean they have mask mandates indoors, for instance."
The Singapore data also showed that infections in the last 14 days among vaccinated people older than 61 stood at about 88 percent, higher than the figure of just over 70 percent for the younger group.
Two doses of vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca are nearly as effective against Delta as against the previously dominant Alpha variant, according to a study published this week.
Singapore uses the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in its national vaccination program.
Friday's 130 new locally transmitted infections were off this week's 11-month high. The recent rise in cases prompted authorities to tighten curbs on social gatherings in the push to boost vaccinations, particularly among the elderly.
No entry
Meanwhile, The Philippines will suspend travel from Malaysia and Thailand, as well as tighten restrictions in the Manila area, in a bid to prevent the spread of the contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, the presidential spokesperson said on Friday.
The travel restriction will take effect from Sunday and run to the end of July, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a national address.
"This action is undertaken to prevent the further spread and community transmission of COVID-19 variants in the Philippines," Roque said.
The Philippines has previously banned travelers from eight countries including Indonesia and India.
To try and prevent further domestic transmission of the Delta variant, President Rodrigo Duterte has placed the capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities that is home to more than 13 million people, and four provinces under stricter coronavirus curbs until the end of July.
Indoor sports and conference venues, indoor tourist attractions and gyms are not allowed to do business, while the operating capacity of indoor and al fresco dining has been cut.
In addition, children between the ages of five and 17 will not be allowed to leave their homes.
The Philippines has recorded 47 cases of the Delta variant, eight of which are active, and three deaths.
With nearly 1.54 million infections and nearly 27,000 deaths, the Philippines has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases and casualties in Southeast Asia, next to Indonesia.
The Philippines reported 6,845 additional cases on Friday, the highest daily increase in four weeks, the health ministry said.
