SINGAPORE - Singapore's weekly Covid-19 infection growth rate has gone up, according to the Ministry of Health's daily update on Saturday (Jan 15), as cases inched up towards the 1,000 threshold.

The number of new Covid-19 cases in Singapore hit 956 on Saturday, with 552 local cases and 404 imported ones.

This is an increase over the 945 new cases reported on Friday.

Singapore last reported over 1,000 new local coronavirus cases on Dec 2.

The weekly infection growth rate rose to 1.47 on Saturday, from 1.38 the day before.

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

MOH also confirmed 692 Omicron cases on Saturday,  a decrease from the 832 cases of the Omicron variant recorded on Friday. 

These include 541 local cases and 151 imported cases.

There were 181 patients in hospital, with nine requiring oxygen supplementation and 12 in the intensive care unit.

Another three people have died.

Ninety-one per cent of Singapore's eligible population has completed the full vaccination regimen, and 51 per cent of the population has received the vaccine booster shots.

As at Saturday, Singapore has recorded 290,986 Covid-19 cases, with 843 deaths.