More than 8,800 COVID-19 reinfections in Singapore in about 5 months

SINGAPORE: There were more than 8,800 cases of COVID-19 reinfections in about five months, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Tuesday (Apr 5).

In a written parliamentary answer to MP He Ting Ru (WP-Sengkang), Mr Ong said that from Nov 1, 2021 to Mar 25, 2022, there were 8,845 cases of reinfection in Singapore.

The majority of reinfection cases are under 60 years old, with most of the cases having mild symptoms.

One person was admitted into the intensive care unit, and two others died.

Singapore has recorded more than 1,123,000 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, with about 1,287 deaths.

The country saw a surge in cases in 2021 with the Delta variant, before the Omicron wave started earlier this year.

Before the Omicron wave hit, Mr Ong said in a parliamentary written answer in November last year that there were 32 confirmed COVID-19 reinfection cases as of Aug 16, 2021.

A third of them were dormitory residents and the remaining were imported cases, he added.

“From Aug 16, 2021, formal assessment of reinfections is no longer performed as the national strategy moved away from the eradication strategy. All infections are managed similarly to ensure optimal clinical management and prevention of spread,” the Health Minister said then.

He added then that the duration between initial infection and subsequent reinfection varied, with an average of about 300 days.

Last month, interim findings from the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) showed that a Moderna COVID-19 booster shot will give older adults a “significantly higher” antibody response.

The findings were based on a clinical trial conducted on 100 participants who had received the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty shot as their primary series of COVID-19 vaccination. Half of the group were aged under 60 years old, the other half above 60, with two eventually dropping out of the study.

Dr Barnaby Young, head of the Singapore Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network at NCID, said: “Based on interim results from the … study, we know that although the Omicron variant is able to escape immunity among fully vaccinated individuals, taking Pfizer-BioNTech/ Comirnaty or Moderna as a booster shot helps increase the serum neutralising activity against Omicron by more than 50 per cent by day seven post-booster.

“The magnitude of the antibody boost is likely to offer significant protection against infection with this variant.”

But he warned that the emergence of variants capable of evading protective immunity remains a concern and highlights the need for a long-term COVID-19 immunisation strategy.