SINGAPORE - There were 5,324 new Covid-19 infections reported in Singapore on Wednesday (Oct 27) by the Ministry of Health (MOH), the first time the daily case number has breached the 5,000 mark.
They comprise 4,651 new cases in the community, 661 in migrant worker dormitories and 12 imported cases.
The ministry said the infection numbers were unusually high because many Covid-19 cases were detected by testing laboratories within a few hours on Wednesday afternoon.
It added that it is looking into the "unusual surge in cases within a relatively short window", and will closely monitor the trend for the next few days.
Ten more people between the ages of 54 and 96 have died of complications linked to Covid-19. All of them had various underlying medical conditions, except one who was unvaccinated, said MOH. It gave no further details.
This takes Singapore's death toll to 349.
Wednesday is the 38th day in a row that deaths from Covid-19 were reported in Singapore.
The weekly infection growth rate is at 1.15.
The community cases included 728 seniors above 60 years old.
The total number of cases in Singapore now stands at 184,419.
MOH added that there are currently 308 patients who require oxygen supplementation in general hospital wards, 76 who are unstable and are being closely monitored in the intensive care unit (ICU), and 66 who are critically ill and intubated in the ICU.
The overall utilisation rate of the ICU is at 79.8 per cent, slightly up from 79.2 per cent on Tuesday.
Of the total of 357 ICU beds, 142 are currently occupied by Covid-19 patients. Another 143 are occupied by those there for non-Covid-19 conditions and 72 beds are empty.
In an update on large clusters it is monitoring, MOH said nine more cases have been detected at a cluster at the Institute of Mental Health. There are now 153 people linked to the cluster. Of these, 10 are staff while the rest are patients.
The other clusters under close monitoring are Maple Bear Loyang, Banyan Home @ Pelangi Village in Buangkok, Bukit Batok Home for the Aged, MWS Christalite Methodist Home in Marsiling, and PCF Sparkletots @ Zhenghua in Senja Road.
These clusters each added either one or two new cases.
As of Wednesday, 20,895 people are recovering from Covid-19 at home, while 4,589 are in community care facilities. Another 849 are in Covid-19 treatment facilities, while 1,777 are warded in hospital, mostly for observation, MOH added.
