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SINGAPORE – More than 85 percent of Covid-19 patients since January have not yet been discharged and remain in hospitals or isolation centers.
As of Monday, only 13.5 percent of patients or 3,225 of the 23,787 infected people have recovered and gone home.
Twenty-one are dead.
However, not everyone who has not yet been discharged remains ill. Some have recovered, but are not allowed to go home because they can still transmit the coronavirus, which causes Covid-19, to others.
The National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) said four out of five patients are mildly ill, showing symptoms of the upper respiratory tract but without lung infection.
They usually stay sick for about two weeks, but it may take almost two more weeks before they stop removing the virus.
Therefore, most patients will be discharged after approximately four weeks.
Professor Leo Yee Sin, executive director of the NCID, said that the viral load is highest at the beginning of the disease and decreases during the first week.
By the 26th day of their illness, 90 percent of patients will stop transmitting the virus. The rest take longer to get rid of the live virus, or dead parts of the virus.
Singapore is taking the extra precaution of keeping patients still spreading the virus in isolation because the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is designed to detect only a certain segment of the virus gene. It is not able to differentiate whether the virus is intact and alive, or dead and in fragments.
“Prolonged positive PCR is a common phenomenon,” said Professor Leo.
Around 20,000 of those infected were diagnosed in the last month alone, the reason why so few have been discharged so far.
Other than that, about one in five patients becomes seriously ill. It generally takes three to six weeks to recover.
Professor Leo said that about 15 percent of patients become seriously ill with infected lungs, shortness of breath and reduced levels of oxygen in the blood.
One in 20 patients becomes seriously ill. There are about 20 patients in intensive care at the moment. Their heart and lung functions are often severely compromised, and other organs can also be affected.
The organs of the 58-year-old woman who died approximately a week after she was released from Covid-19 suffered irreparable damage. Although he was no longer removing the coronavirus, he had to remain in the hospital due to other complications from the infection.
There are other patients who have been found in similar circumstances.
Professor Leo said: “We know that Covid-19 tends to cause more serious illness in older age groups (over 60 years) and in those with underlying medical conditions.
“In patients with pre-existing lung conditions, the infection can place additional stress on the respiratory systems, causing dyspnea or respiratory failure.”
Meanwhile, the number of people being discharged is going up
On Monday (May 11), more than 500 patients were discharged, the highest number yet.
That helps free up hospital beds and isolation facilities.
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