Singapore reports 15,345 new Covid-19 cases with 1,396 patients in hospital

[SINGAPORE] Daily new Covid-19 infections and hospitalisations in Singapore fell on Friday (March 11), with 15,345 new cases and 1,396 people hospitalised.

There were 16,165 infections and 1,450 people hospitalised on Thursday.

The number of new daily cases is lower than last Friday's, when the Ministry of Health (MOH) recorded 17,564 new Covid-19 cases.

The Covid-19 weekly infection growth rate remained below 1 at 0.92, said MOH in its nightly update on Friday.

This is the 10th day in a row that the weekly infection rate has dipped below 1 since Mar 2.

The rate refers to the ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before. A rate of more than 1 indicates that the number of new weekly Covid-19 cases is increasing.

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Wednesday that the current Omicron wave in Singapore has peaked and is subsiding.

Thirteen deaths were reported on Friday, up from 6 on Thursday.

There were 39 patients in the intensive care unit and 170 required oxygen supplementation.

Of the local cases, 13,215 were detected through antigen rapid tests (ARTs), which means they were assessed by a doctor to have mild symptoms and of low risk.

Another 1,915 cases were detected through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

There were 215 new imported cases, of which 76 were detected through PCR tests and 139 through ARTs.

As at Friday, Singapore has recorded a total of 917,103 Covid-19 cases, with 1,129 deaths.

About 95 per cent of the eligible population have completed their full vaccination regimen, and 69 per cent of the total population have received their booster shot. THE STRAITS TIMES