Singapore reports 16,870 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths

SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 16,870 new COVID-19 cases as of noon on Wednesday (Jul 13), comprising 15,978 local infections and 892 imported cases.

There were three fatalities, taking the death toll from coronavirus complications to 1,440.

The cases reported on Wednesday were nearly three times that of Tuesday, when 5,979 COVID-19 infections were reported.

“The increase in the number of cases today is due to the spike we typically see following a long weekend. The 7-day moving average number of local cases has remained stable over the past week, at about 8,400,” said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on its website.

The last time Singapore reported more daily infections than Wednesday was on Mar 9, when 17,051 COVID-19 new cases were reported.

Singapore's daily COVID-19 tally had remained under 10,000 between late March and late June.

Since Jun 28, there have been three instances where more than 10,000 COVID-19 cases were reported in a day, two of which were on Tuesdays.

Cases tend to increase on Tuesdays, with Health Minister Ong Ye Kung previously referring to such a pattern, writing on Facebook in October 2021 that numbers would "always spike after the weekends".

The authorities have previously cautioned of a new Omicron wave in July or August, as COVID-19 antibodies start to wane.

During Parliament last Tuesday, Mr Ong said the current COVID-19 wave will not be as severe as the Omicron wave earlier this year.

He added that authorities had anticipated this wave when they learnt of the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

On Wednesday, a total of 734 patients were in hospital, according to the latest infection statistics on the MOH website. Ninety patients require oxygen supplementation.

Fourteen patients were in the intensive care unit.

Among the local cases reported on Wednesday, 15,072 cases tested positive via antigen rapid tests (ARTs) and have been assessed by doctors to have mild symptoms and are of low risk, said MOH.

The remaining 906 local COVID-19 cases were confirmed via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

Of the imported cases, 854 were tested with ARTs, and 38 were with PCR tests.

The week-on-week infection ratio was 1.01. A number above 1 indicates that the number of new weekly COVID-19 cases is rising.

Singapore has recorded 1,557,648 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

As of Tuesday, 96 per cent of Singapore's eligible population have completed their full vaccination regimen under the national vaccination programme.

About 78 per cent of the total population have received their vaccine booster shots.