The average daily polyclinic cases for conditions that could be triggered or aggravated by the haze has decreased slightly in the last two weeks.

A Ministry of Health statement released Monday reported that polyclinics saw an average of 3,390 cases of asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, upper respiratory tract infections, acute conjunctivitis, acute myocardial infarction and ischaemic heart disease for the week beginning July 1. This is a 1.8 per cent drop from 3,453 cases seen the week before.

The average daily emergency department attendances for those same conditions in addition to pneumonia was 415 for last week, as compared to 434 the week before - a decrease of 4.4 per cent.

For this same period however, the average daily emergency department cases for all conditions across the board increased marginally. There were 2,751 cases last week , up from 2,717 the week before. Similarly, the average daily polyclinic attendances for all conditions went up to 16,384 last week compared to 16,000 in the week before. A MOH spokesman noted that the cause of these conditions was not necessarily due to the haze.