Over 11,500 new cases reported in Singapore

A total of 11,504 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in Singapore yesterday, more than double the 5,309 cases on Monday.

This marks the highest daily number of infections in more than three months, since March 22 when there were over 13,000.

It is also more than last Tuesday's 7,109 cases.

Case numbers on Tuesdays tend to be higher compared with the rest of the week as they reflect the spike in infections after the weekend, when more people are out in various social settings.

The week-on-week infection ratio rose slightly to 1.62 yesterday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported in an update on its website, up from 1.56 on Monday.

Last Tuesday's ratio was 1.23.

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

MOH said there were 437 patients hospitalised, with nine in intensive care and 36 requiring oxygen support.

There was one death reported.

Of the new local Covid-19 cases, 743 were detected through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

Another 9,989 were detected through antigen rapid tests (ARTs), which means they either had no symptoms or their symptoms were mild.

There were 772 new imported cases, with 24 detected through PCR tests and 748 through ARTs.

Singapore has recorded a total of 1,425,171 Covid-19 cases, and 1,410 deaths.

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told Lianhe Zaobao yesterday that the next wave of Covid-19 infections has arrived sooner than expected, and could be related to the fact that many people had travelled overseas during the recent June school holidays.

But he said he did not think this wave would be worse than the one in February which was caused by the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant.

Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Monday that there is no need to tighten safe management measures for now but this cannot be ruled out as more Covid-19 infections are reported.

He also said the uptick in the number of infections is driven by the newer BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants.

But there is no evidence yet that the current infections are more severe, and hospitals are still able to cope with the situation.

Monday also saw the first death of a Covid-19 patient under 12 years old.

The 18-month-old child died of encephalitis - or inflammation of the brain - due to Covid-19 and two other viruses.

•Additional reporting by Timothy Goh