Singapore records 6,888 new Covid-19 cases days after F1 weekend

There were 6,888 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday (Oct 4), days after the return of the F1 Grand Prix race that attracted more than 300,000 people at the weekend.

A day earlier on Monday, there were 2,587 cases.

There is usually a spike in case numbers on Tuesdays, due to people socialising over the weekend. On Tuesday last week, there were 4,066 new cases.

Numbers published on the Ministry of Health (MOH) website showed that most of the latest patients were middle-aged people and young adults.

For instance, 2,902 patients were between ages 20 and 39 while 2,143 were between 40 and 59.

MOH on Sep 30 said higher case counts were to be expected over the next few weeks, driven mainly by an increase in Omicron variant BA.2.75 infections.

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It urged people to go for their vaccine booster shots and added that it would continue to monitor the situation.

MOH said the higher number of cases has, so far, not led to more severe disease or had a significant impact on Singapore’s healthcare system.

The BA.2.75 variant also does not appear to be more dangerous, it added.

The new Omicron sub-variant BA.2.75, dubbed Centaurus, was first detected in India in early May and has since infected people in a raft of countries including the United States, Britain, Australia, Germany and Canada.

It is still being studied by experts worldwide.

The week-on-week infection ratio was at 1.56, and over the last 28 days, 68,891 people have tested positive.

Of these, 99.8 per cent of them had mild or no symptoms, MOH said. THE STRAITS TIMES