Singapore's Covid-19 weekly infection rate falls below one for 15th day in a row

[SINGAPORE] The Covid-19 weekly infection growth rate remained below 1 for the 15th consecutive day on Wednesday (Mar 16), dropping to 0.76 from 0.8 the day before.

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

The Ministry of Health (MOH), in its daily update, said 11,278 new cases were recorded, a drop from last Wednesday's total of 17,051 cases.

There were 15,851 cases on Tuesday (Mar 15).

There were also 1,238 hospitalisations as at noon on Wednesday, down from 1,311 on Tuesday.

11 deaths were announced on Wednesday, up from 6 the day before.

There were 36 patients in the intensive care unit, and 171 who needed oxygen supplementation.

Of the local cases, 9,680 were detected through antigen rapid tests (ARTs) and were assessed by a doctor to have mild symptoms and to be of low risk.

Another 1,461 cases were detected through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

There were 137 new imported cases, of which 55 were detected through PCR tests and 82 through ARTs.

As at Wednesday, Singapore has recorded a total of 975,607 Covid-19 cases and 1,170 deaths.

About 95 per cent of the eligible population in Singapore have completed their full vaccination regimen, and 70 per cent of the total population have received their booster shot. THE STRAITS TIMES