280 new COVID-19 cases and 2 deaths in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 280 new COVID-19 cases and two fatalities as of noon on Tuesday (Dec 21).

This takes the country's death toll from coronavirus complications to 817 deaths.

Tuesday's case count is up from the 195 infections reported on Monday.

Among the new cases, 226 are locally transmitted, comprising 221 in the community and five in migrant workers' dormitories.

There are also 54 imported cases, according to the latest infection statistics on the Ministry of Health's (MOH) website.

The weekly infection growth rate is 0.56, unchanged from Monday's. 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 Tuesday, Singapore has recorded 276,385 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

Of those, 71 were confirmed to be Omicron cases with 65 imported cases and six local infections, MOH said in a press release on Monday, in which it also announced the detection of a suspected Omicron cluster at Anytime Fitness in Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. The daily updates on its website do not specify the strain of COVID-19 with which people have been infected.

HOSPITALISATIONS AND VACCINATIONS

The intensive care unit (ICU) utilisation rate is at 53.3 per cent, up from the 52.8 per cent reported on Monday. 

There are 456 patients in hospital, with 53 requiring oxygen supplementation.

In the ICU, four patients require close monitoring while 26 patients are critically ill.

As of Sunday, 96 per cent of Singapore's eligible population - those aged 12 and above - have completed their full vaccination regimen.

About 34 per cent of the total population have received their vaccine booster shots.