280 new Covid-19 infections and 2 deaths in Singapore

221 cases were reported in the community. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Health announced 280 new Covid-19 infections and two deaths on its website on Tuesday (Dec 21).

The number of infections is up from the 195 cases recorded on Monday, and it is the 19th day in a row that the number of new coronavirus cases has fallen below 1,000, according to statistics published on the MOH website.

Overall, there were 221 cases in the community, five in migrant worker dormitories and and 54 imported cases reported on Tuesday.

The intensive care unit (ICU) utilisation rate was 53.3 per cent, up from 52.8 per cent on Monday.

There are 456 cases in hospital, with 26 in critical condition, four under close monitoring and 53 requiring oxygen support.

The weekly infection growth rate was 0.56, holding steady from Monday.

This figure refers to the ratio of community cases in the past week over the week before.

A weekly infection growth rate that is consistently below one shows that the number of weekly new Covid-19 cases is falling.

The growth rate has been below one since Nov 13.

The two deaths reported on Tuesday take Singapore's Covid-19 death toll to 817. MOH did not provide more details on the fatalities.

The total number of cases here now stands at 276,385.

The ministry said on Monday that a suspected Omicron Covid-19 cluster was uncovered at the Bukit Timah Shopping Centre branch of Anytime Fitness.

Two men, aged 21 and 24, and a woman aged 18 studying at Ngee Ann Polytechnic tested positive for Covid-19.

Two of them tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant, the ministry had said.

See the full update from MOH here.

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