Singapore reports 16,274 new COVID-19 cases, 6 deaths

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 16,274 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Saturday (Mar 5), comprising 16,120 local and 154 imported infections.

There were six fatalities, taking the death toll from coronavirus complications to 1,073.

There are 1,559 patients in hospital, according to the latest infection statistics on the Ministry of Health's (MOH) website. A total of 191 patients require oxygen supplementation.

Forty-eight patients are in the intensive care unit, compared to 45 on Friday.

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 Saturday, 14,070 are classified under Protocol 2, comprising 13,953 local cases and 117 imported ones.

Another 2,204 cases were confirmed via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, with 37 of them being imported infections. 

The weekly infection growth rate is 0.95, down from 0.97 on Friday.

The weekly infection growth rate refers to the ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before. A number above 1 indicates that the number of new weekly COVID-19 cases is rising.

Singapore has recorded 819,663 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

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

About 68 per cent of the total population have received their vaccine booster shots.