Covid-19: 2,079 new cases and 6 more deaths in Singapore; weekly infection growth rate at 0.75

• There were 2,079 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on Nov 24
• This was 297 more infections compared to the day before
• Six deaths were registered for the day, bringing the tally here to 678
• There are 431 ICU beds, of which 242 are now occupied, including 93 by Covid-19 patients
• The ratio of community cases in the past week compared with the week before is 0.75

SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday (Nov 24) recorded 2,079 new cases of Covid-19 and six more deaths due to complications from the disease.

The daily case count is higher than the 1,782 reported on Tuesday.

In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that there were 34 patients who were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care units (ICUs) to prevent further deterioration. This is a rise from the 28 reported the day before.

In addition, there were 59 patients who were critically ill and intubated in ICUs — five fewer than on Tuesday.

The number of patients who require oxygen support dropped slightly from 205 on Tuesday to 203 on Wednesday.

In total, there are 431 ICU beds, of which 242 are now occupied — 93 by Covid-19 patients.

The overall ICU utilisation rate stands at 56.1 per cent, up from 55.2 per cent on Tuesday.

MOH stressed that people aged 60 and above continue to be more adversely affected by Covid-19, especially if they are not vaccinated.

Among the new infections recorded on Wednesday, 2,030 were in the community, 40 were residents of migrant worker dormitories and the remaining nine were imported.

There were 312 people aged 60 and older among the community cases.

The ratio of community cases in the past week, compared with the week before, stood at 0.75 — a drop from the ratio of 0.83 reported on Tuesday.

This is the 12th day in a row that the week-on-week infection ratio rate has been below 1.0.

The six patients who died were aged between 60 and 83.

“All of them, except for an unvaccinated case, had various underlying medical conditions,” MOH said.

In total, 678 people have died of Covid-19 complications here.

Singapore has registered a total of 257,510 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

LOCAL SITUATION

A total of 2,275 recovered patients were discharged on Wednesday, including 366 aged 60 and above.

There are still, however, 1,365 patients who remain hospitalised — a decrease from 1,389 on Tuesday.

Over the last 28 days, the proportion of local coronavirus cases who had mild or no symptoms was 98.7 per cent, MOH said. During the same period:

• 0.8 per cent of patients needed oxygen aid
• 0.1 per cent were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care
• 0.1 per cent were critically ill and intubated in ICUs
• 0.2 per cent died

CLUSTERS UNDER MONITORING

Among the large Covid-19 clusters that are being closely monitored by the ministry, four had new cases — the same number of clusters as on Tuesday.

A total of 18 new infections were added to these four large clusters.

VACCINATIONS

As of Nov 23, MOH said that 94 per cent of the eligible population — those aged 12 and above — have been fully vaccinated.

Among the total population, 85 per cent have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and 86 per cent have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

MOH added that 24 per cent of the total population have received their vaccine boosters.

In the past seven days:

• The number of fully vaccinated patients who were critically ill in ICU was at 0.5 per 100,000 people and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 4.6
• The number of fully vaccinated patients who died was 0.04 per 100,000 people and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 0.6
• For fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and above, the number who were critically ill under intensive care was 1.6 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 41.8
• The number of fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and older who died was 0.2 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 7.0