THE daily number of new Covid-19 infections in Singapore has continued to increase in recent days, with community cases now doubling every 10 days or so, said Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong on Saturday.

Singapore on Friday night reported 2,909 new cases, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. A total of 103 people have died from the virus to date.

"Depending on how the trajectory will develop, we may start to see daily infections rise to more than 5,000 next week," Mr Gan, the co-chair of the government's multi-ministry taskforce on Covid-19, said at a press conference. "The vast majority will be asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms and can recover safely at home."

Fellow co-chair and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said it is "hard to tell" when the current wave will crest or what the peak will be. He shared that the taskforce has consulted experts from the local universities and they have presented a range of different views.

"Some think the wave can peak at about 5,000 new daily cases or slightly above that. Some think it will go much higher to around 10,000 daily cases, so there is a range of uncertainty. No model can predict with absolute certainty what the epidemic curve will look like in the next few weeks," said Mr Wong.

He made the point that Singaporeans should be prepared that the current wave of infections will not be the last one the country will experience.

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"We are riding one major, one big wave now, but we should be mentally prepared that there will be subsequent waves to follow. Why is that so? It's because we are one of the most Covid-naive populations in the world. Unlike, for example, many other European countries, we have kept infections in Singapore low for a very long time," he said.

In a press release, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said the percentage of patients who need to be in the intensive care unit (ICU) today "remains low" at about 0.2 per cent.

"However, with higher cases, this can translate to a larger absolute number. Currently 34 ICU beds are occupied and we expect the number to rise. We will continue to monitor the capacity and utilisation closely.

The ministry said there is "strong evidence" that vaccination is protective against severe disease outcomes. The proportion of fully vaccinated cases who needed intensive care or died is about 14 times less than that for the unvaccinated (0.12 per cent, compared to 1.67 per cent).

The proportion of cases who are seniors aged 60 and above has remained stable at about 27 per cent to 32 per cent in the past 28 days. The MOH reiterated its call for all seniors, especially the 80,000 or so who are unvaccinated, to take extra precautions and avoid crowded places.

On the Home Recovery Programme, the MOH said fully vaccinated people aged between 12 and 69 are "encouraged to rest, take plenty of fluids and recover in the comfort of home".

"We would like to reassure these individuals that it is safe to do so as vaccination is highly protective against severe illness, as local and overseas data has consistently showed," the ministry said.

Separately, MOH said there are four Covid-19 Treatment Facilities (CTFs) with 580 beds, and this will be ramped up to nine facilities with about 3,700 beds by the end of October.

The CTFs will be used to care for higher risk patients who needs close observation, but do not need hospital care.

"This is an important step towards right-siting care and reducing the strain on our acute hospitals which should be preserved for those who require immediate acute hospital care, both Covid-19 as well as non-Covid patients," said MOH.

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