Singapore reports 17,051 new Covid-19 cases with 1,513 patients hospitalised

[SINGAPORE] Daily new Covid-19 infections in Singapore fell on Wednesday (Mar 9), with 17,051 new cases, compared to 22,201 infections on Tuesday.

But the number of people hospitalised rose to 1,513 on Wednesday, from 1,499 on Tuesday.

The number of new daily cases is lower than that reported last Wednesday (Mar 2), when the Ministry of Health (MOH) recorded 19,159 new Covid-19 cases.

The Covid-19 weekly infection growth rate remained below one at 0.94, said MOH in its nightly update.

This is the eighth day in a row that the weekly infection rate dipped below one 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 one 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.

There were 11 deaths reported on Wednesday, down from 15 on Tuesday.

There were 50 patients in the intensive care unit on Wednesday, and 187 patients required oxygen supplementation.

Of the local cases, 14,563 were detected through antigen rapid tests (ARTs), which means they were assessed by a doctor to have mild symptoms and of low risk.

Another 2,295 cases were detected through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

There were 193 new imported cases, of which 61 were detected through PCR tests and 132 through ARTs.

As at Wednesday, Singapore has recorded a total of 885,593 Covid-19 cases, with 1,110 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