Singapore's Covid-19 weekly infection growth rate at 0.98 with 18,162 new cases

[SINGAPORE] The Covid-19 weekly infection growth rate remained below one at 0.98 on Thursday (March 3), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in its nightly update.

It is the second day in a row that the weekly infection rate dipped under one since Jan 3. The rate was also 0.98 on Wednesday (March 2).

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

A total of 18,162 new Covid-19 cases was reported on Thursday, down from 19,159 infections on Wednesday.

There were 1,685 patients in hospital on Thursday, down from 1,708 on Wednesday, said MOH.

The number of patients in the intensive care unit rose slightly to 53, up from 51 the previous day, while 232 patients required oxygen support.

Nine deaths were reported on Thursday, down from 10 the day before.

Of the local cases, 15,575 were detected through antigen rapid tests (ARTs), which means they were assessed by a doctor to have mild symptoms and to be of low risk.

Another 2,416 cases were detected through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

There were 171 new imported cases, of which 77 were detected through PCR tests and 94 through ARTs.

As at Thursday, Singapore has recorded a total of 785,825 Covid-19 cases, with 1,049 deaths.

About 95 per cent of the eligible population have completed their full vaccination regimen, and 68 per cent of the total population have received their booster shot. THE STRAITS TIMES