SINGAPORE - Hospitals are seeing fewer admissions for Covid-19, and about 75 per cent of cases are for medical emergencies and uncontrolled chronic medical conditions, said Singapore's director of medical services Kenneth Mak.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday (March 11), Associate Professor Mak added that about 20 per cent of the cases were diagnosed with the coronavirus at the point of admission.
"Some of them may well have had chronic medical conditions, but Covid-19 tipped them over and made (the) chronic conditions more severe, requiring hospitalisation."
The remaining 5 per cent were in hospitals specifically for the treatment of Covid-19 related problems.
His comments followed the announcement of streamlined safe management measures from March 15 that would allow households to host five guests at any one time, as well as a 50 per cent capacity limit for large events and settings with more than 1,000 people.
Prof Mak said these measures would not change the situation at the hospitals at this point in time.
"If we still maintain our discipline of adhering to these revised safe management measures, self-isolate when we're infected, then this drop in community cases which we currently see can be sustained and it will eventually drive a decrease in our hospital admission rates as well," he added.
The seven-day moving average of local Covid-19 cases had peaked at 18,300 cases on Feb 26, and has come down gradually to 16,300 as at Thursday.
Prof Mak said that currently about 1.3 per cent of Covid-19 cases are admitted to public hospitals, down from about 1.6 per cent over the last two weeks.
Of all Covid-19 cases reported in the last two weeks, 0.3 per cent eventually needed oxygen supplementation, or care in an intensive care unit, or died from their illness.
"These cases of non-Covid-19 related admissions are a debt that we have incurred over the past few months that must now be repaid," said Prof Mak, adding that hospitals are now reprioritising their focus on providing care for non-Covid-19 patients.
Hospitals will continue to remain busy, with the bulk of the workload focusing on looking after patients with more chronic medical issues whose conditions have deteriorated, he said.
He added that some of these patients have seen their medical conditions worsen over the course of the pandemic, even when Covid-19 was not the cause of it.
"Therefore, we must still remain cautious that our hospitals are not out of the woods yet."
