Omicron wave has peaked but hospitals still under stress: Ong

The peak of the Omicron wave is definitely over, but hospitals remain under stress largely owing to patients with conditions not related to Covid-19, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung yesterday in an update on the local coronavirus situation.

He said in a Facebook post that based on daily case counts, the Omicron wave has "clearly peaked" and "is subsiding".

The week-on-week case ratio is now almost 0.7. It was more than 0.9 just a few days ago, he said.

A case ratio below one shows that the number of cases has declined compared with the previous week, and a smaller number shows a sharper drop.

Mr Ong also said the number of people hospitalised due to Covid-19 is falling gradually, with a lag compared with the fall in daily cases.

"However, hospitals are still very busy and under stress due to the large number of non-Covid-19-related emergency department admissions," he said.

These are mostly patients with chronic diseases that have worsened over the last two years as the healthcare system was preoccupied with fighting Covid-19.

Mr Ong said that 90 per cent to 95 per cent of emergency department patients admitted to hospital have acute medical emergencies or a worsening of chronic medical conditions. Of this group, around 20 per cent had an incidental Covid-19 diagnosis - meaning that they also happened to have Covid-19.

The remaining 5 per cent were admitted for Covid-19-specific treatments.

"At the Ministry of Health, we call this the 'business-as-usual debt', which has to be repaid. And the debt repayment is coming at us ferociously," said Mr Ong.

He added that the ministry hopes the situation will ease in the coming couple of weeks.

Week-on-week changes in daily Covid-19 cases and emergency hospital admissions are two numbers that the Government is watching closely as it plans the next set of easing of safe management measures, he said.