The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health says around eight percent of people who have severe illnesses can still succumb to COVID-19.

Doctor James Fong says these people are at risk of contracting the virus despite receiving both their jabs.

He says the chances of severe illness and dying are still high for these people.

The Permanent Secretary made these comments while briefing on the recent death of three fully vaccinated people, who had taken both their vaccines and still died with their death classified as non-COVID.

“These groups are people who have comorbidities, the comorbidities range from Ischemic heart disease, morbid obesity, and severe unstable diabetes to leukemia. Their level of immune response will not be good as those who do not have those comorbidities.”

He says while not everyone who has severe illnesses will encounter more complications, choosing to be vaccinated is still the better choice.

“In summary what I’m getting at is the fully vaccinated are more protected from the serious effect of COVID-19 than those who are half vaccinated or not vaccinated.”

To date, 315 COVID-19 positive patients have died from serious medical conditions that they had before contracting COVID-19.

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