341 new COVID-19 cases reported in Singapore; 170 Omicron infections confirmed
SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 341 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Wednesday (Dec 29), including 153 imported infections.
There was also one fatality, taking the country's death toll from coronavirus complications to 826, according to the latest infection statistics on the Ministry of Health's (MOH) website.
Wednesday's case count was down from the 365 infections reported on Tuesday.
Among the new cases reported on Wednesday, 188 were locally transmitted, comprising 182 in the community and six in migrant worker's dormitories.
Separately, MOH's website also showed that 170 new Omicron variant infections were confirmed on Wednesday, comprising 151 imported cases and 19 local cases.
The daily new COVID-19 cases and new confirmed Omicron cases are presented as two separate sets of data on MOH's website.
The weekly infection growth rate on Wednesday was 0.71, up from Tuesday's 0.67. This refers to the ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before.
The growth rate has remained below 1 since Nov 13. A figure below 1 means that the number of new weekly COVID-19 cases is falling.
As of Wednesday, Singapore has recorded 278,750 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.
HOSPITALISATIONS AND VACCINATIONS
The intensive care unit (ICU) utilisation rate was 50.7 per cent, up from the 49.1 per cent reported on Tuesday.
There were 305 patients in hospital, with 42 requiring oxygen supplementation.
In the ICU, four patients required close monitoring while 16 patients were critically ill.
As of Tuesday, 91 per cent of Singapore's eligible population have completed their full vaccination regimen under the national vaccination programme. This figure has been updated to include children aged five to 11, after vaccination for this age group started on Monday.
About 39 per cent of the total population have received their vaccine booster shots.
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