SINGAPORE – There were 11,934 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday (18 October), more than double Monday’s 5,196 new cases.
Tuesday’s new instances were higher than a week ago, when Singapore recorded 11,732 instances.
There are 661 COVID-19 patients hospitalized lately, up from 490 a week ago. Of these, 58 patients want supplemental oxygen and 14 are in the intensive care unit, the Ministry of Health (MINSA) added.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said last Tuesday that past covid-19 figures are not particularly higher than a week ago, and that the Ministry of Health will continue to closely monitor the wave of the outbreak.
The number of cases on Tuesday tends to be higher than the rest of the week because it reflects the rise in infections after the weekend, when more people are absent from social settings.
People tend not to go to the doctor after the weekend, he said. “I hope we are close to or most sensible on the wave,” he wrote on Facebook.
Singapore is lately experiencing a wave of infections caused by the XBB variant, a subvariant of Omicron. Last Saturday, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told a news convention that the wave is expected to peak at about 15,000 cases by mid-November.
The Ministry of Health has suggested that elderly people and other immunocompromised people continue to wear masks in crowded indoor environments.
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Members of the public should also not move into hospital emergency departments unless they have emergency conditions.
To ease the burden on general medicine clinics and polyclinics here, employers have been suggested to require a medical certificate from workers who have tested positive for Covid-19 or exhibit symptoms of acute respiratory infection.
Of Tuesday’s new local Covid-19 cases, 10,837 were detected by immediate antigen testing (ART). Another 716 were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.
There were 381 new imported cases, of which 15 were detected by PCR tests and 366 by ART.
Five deaths have been reported. Singapore has recorded a total of 2,029,195 Covid-19 cases and 1,651 deaths.
READ ALSO: Singapore’s XBB Covid-19 infections will peak in mid-November, rule out the return of mask rules
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission is required for reproduction.