Singapore reports 15,345 new COVID-19 cases, 13 deaths

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 15,345 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Friday (Mar 11), comprising 15,130 local cases and 215 imported infections.

There were 13 fatalities reported on Friday, taking the death toll from coronavirus complications to 1,129.

There are 1,396 patients in hospital, according to the latest infection statistics on the Ministry of Health's (MOH) website. A total of 170 patients require oxygen supplementation.

Thirty-nine patients are in the intensive care unit, compared to 36 on Thursday.

Most of Singapore's new COVID-19 infections are Protocol 2 cases, which are those who are well or assessed to have a mild condition.

Among the cases reported on Friday, 13,354 are classified under Protocol 2, comprising 13,215 local cases and 139 imported infections.

Another 1,991 cases were confirmed via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, with 76 of them being imported infections. 

The weekly infection growth rate was 0.92, lower than the 0.93 on Thursday. A number below 1 indicates that the number of new weekly COVID-19 cases is falling.

Singapore has recorded 917,103 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

As of Thursday, 95 per cent of Singapore's eligible population have completed their full vaccination regimen under the national vaccination programme.

About 69 per cent of the total population have received their vaccine booster shots.

As the Omicron wave has likely peaked, the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force said on Friday that the streamlined measures will be implemented on Mar 15 after being deferred.

It also announced that all travellers on vaccinated travel lanes or arriving from places with low infection rates will only need to do an unsupervised self-swab antigen rapid test (ART) within 24 hours of entering Singapore. The new rule takes effect on Mar 15.