Record 76 of 335 new COVID cases in Singapore imported; 1 death
NOTE: The MOH has stopped issuing daily media releases on infection statistics. In line with the MOH's announcement, Gov.sg has also stopped its daily WhatsApp updates on such statistics.
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wednesday (22 December) confirmed 335 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore – bringing the country's total case count to 276,720 – as well as one death due to the disease.
Wednesday marks the 20th day in a row with less than 1,000 cases reported in the city-state.
It is also the 94th day in a row with fatalities from COVID-19 reported in Singapore, with 95 people having succumbed to it this month. No details were provided by the MOH on the single fatality reported on Wednesday.
Of the new cases, 259 are local – 245 are in the community and 14 are residents of migrant worker dormitories. The remaining 76 are imported, the highest reported in a day since the start of the pandemic here. The figure overtakes the previous high of 67 such cases on 19 December.
The ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before – or the weekly infection growth rate – is 0.54, down from a three-day streak of 0.56. It is the 40th day in a row where the figure is lower than 1.
Apart from the 818 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.
Singapore on Wednesday also announced that the sale of new tickets for designated vaccinated travel lane (VTL) flights and buses for entry into Singapore will be paused until from 11.59pm on 20 January, in response to the growing number of Omicron cases here.
As of early Tuesday morning, Singapore has 71 cases of the new variant, including 65 imported and six local. A new cluster at an Anytime Fitness branch at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre has also been suspected to be linked to Omicron.
53 require oxygen supplementation; 29 in ICU
A total of 494 cases were discharged on Wednesday, while 428 are hospitalised. Over the last 28 days, of the 18,550 infected individuals, 98.6 per cent had no or mild symptoms.
There are currently 53 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation.
A total of 29 cases are in the intensive care unit (ICU) – six are unstable and under close monitoring to prevent further deterioration, while 23 are critically ill and intubated.
The current overall ICU utilisation rate is 52.7 per cent, down from 53.3 per cent on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, the total number of individuals who have completed their full regimen or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines is 96 per cent of the eligible population.
Among the total population, 87 per cent have done so, while 88 per cent have received at least one dose, and 35 per cent have received their booster shots.
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