19,420 Covid-19 cases logged, 1,355 in hospital

There were a record 19,420 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, up from 9,082 on Monday, said the Ministry of Health in its daily update.

The daily number is the highest since the pandemic hit Singapore shores in January 2020.

Of the 19,179 local cases yesterday, 16,102 of them were detected through antigen rapid tests (ART), which means the patients displayed no symptoms or their symptoms were mild.

Another 3,077 were detected through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

There were also 241 new imported cases, with 182 detected through PCR tests and 59 through ARTs.

Seven people died, MOH said yesterday.

With the latest numbers, Singapore has recorded 497,997 Covid-19 cases and 913 deaths linked to the coronavirus.

A total of 1,355 patients in Singapore were hospitalised with Covid-19 yesterday, up from 1,332 people the day before.

For the 11th day, hospitalisation numbers have exceeded 1,000.

There were also 23 patients in the intensive care unit, with a total of 140 requiring oxygen support, down from 147 a day earlier.

The weekly Covid-19 infection growth rate is at 1.34, down from 1.39 the day before.

The rate refers to the ratio of community cases for the past week, over the week before. A rate of more than one shows that the number of new weekly Covid-19 cases is increasing.

About 94 per cent of Singapore's eligible population have completed the full vaccination regimen, and 64 per cent of the total population have received the vaccine booster shot.