SINGAPORE - Daily Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations in Singapore continue to drop, with 16,274 total cases and 1,559 people hospitalised on Saturday (March 5).

There were 17,564 infections and 1,678 hospitalisations the day before.

Six deaths were reported on Saturday, down from 18 the day before.

The Covid-19 weekly infection growth rate remained below one at 0.95, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its nightly update.

This is the fourth day in a row that the weekly infection rate dipped under one since Jan 3. The rate was 0.97 on Friday.

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

There were 48 patients in the intensive care unit, up from 45 on Friday, while 191 patients required oxygen support.

Of the local cases, 13,953 were detected through antigen rapid tests (ARTs), which means they were assessed by a doctor to have mild symptoms and of low risk.

Another 2,167 cases were detected through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

There were 154 new imported cases, of which 37 were detected through PCR tests and 117 through ARTs.

As at Saturday, Singapore has recorded a total of 819,663 Covid-19 cases, with 1,073 deaths.

About 95 per cent of the eligible population have completed their full vaccination regimen, and 68 per cent of the total population have received their booster shot.