Covid-19 cases below 20,000 for 4th straight day, with 14,228 new infections
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Timothy Goh
Covid-19 cases dropped below 20,000 for the fourth consecutive day yesterday, as Singapore reported 14,228 new infections, down from 16,857 on Saturday.
Cases had crossed the 20,000 mark last Tuesday and Wednesday. There were 1,553 Covid-19 cases in hospital yesterday, the same as the day before, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its nightly Covid-19 update.
The number of patients in the intensive care unit fell to 46, down from 50 on Saturday, while 214 patients required oxygen support.
Eight deaths were reported yesterday.
Of the local cases, 11,809 were detected through antigen rapid tests (ARTs), which means they were assessed by a doctor to have mild symptoms and be of low risk.
Another 2,255 cases were detected through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.
There were 164 new imported cases, of which 109 were detected through PCR tests and 55 through ARTs.
The weekly Covid-19 infection growth rate stood at 1.14, down from 1.21 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.
As at yesterday, Singapore has recorded a total of 710,880 Covid-19 cases, with 1,007 deaths.
About 94 per cent of the eligible population have completed their full vaccination regimen, and 67 per cent of the total population have received their booster shot.
Singapore has been battling a surge in Covid-19 cases resulting from the Omicron variant.
Last Friday, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and MOH urged members of the public to call the 995 emergency medical services only for life-threatening emergencies.
They said that the number of calls increased from an average of 635 a day last month to an average of 830 a day in the first two weeks of this month.
About 1,700 of the calls last month and about 2,500 of the calls in the first two weeks of this month were from Covid-19 patients.
But around 45 per cent of them needed only day treatment at the hospital.
SCDF and MOH also stressed that 995 calls are meant for those with life-threatening and emergency medical conditions to be taken to hospital swiftly, and need to be prioritised.
