Singapore — The Ministry of Health said on Monday night (Dec 6) that it would stop issuing daily press releases about Covid-19 infection statistics “as the current wave of Delta infections subsides”. This is effective from Tuesday (Dec 7) onward.
MOH added that it will continue to update infection statistics on its website on a daily basis, including hospital capacity, the status of COVID-19 patients, vaccination progress in Singapore, and the number of COVID-19 cases.
The ministry added that Singapore’s week-on-week infection growth ratio will continue to be monitored.
“During the present wave of infection, we wanted to ensure that the ratio was below 1 before we eased any restrictions. As the present wave subsides and infection numbers start to stabilise, we can expect the ratio to trend towards 1,” wrote MOH, adding that it will “continue to monitor this indicator to get a sense of how quickly the virus is spreading in the community.”
If the ratio is to rise “swiftly beyond 1 on a sustained basis,” indicating that there is an acceleration in how quickly the infection spreads, which could signal the start of a new wave of transmission.
Over the past week, the ratio of community cases over the previous week has been at 0.64, the 24th successive day that the figure has been lower than 1.
The ministry reported 662 new COVID-19 infections on Dec 6, the fourth successive day that the country has seen less than 1000 new infections.
There were also four new deaths reported. The patients who passed away were between 81 and 97 years old and all had underlying medical conditions.
The public will continue to get updated on significant developments concerning the pandemic, including information about the Omicron variant, through regular media statements from MOH.
Two imported cases on whom initial tests showed to have been infected with the Omicron variant on Dec 2 have been confirmed positive for the variant, MOH added.
”The National Public Health Laboratory has completed whole-genome sequencing for the cases, and has confirmed that they are infected with the Omicron variant. Both are fully vaccinated, and have mild symptoms of cough and scratchy throat. They were isolated upon arrival in Singapore on 1 December, and had not interacted in the community.”
The travellers arrived from Johannesburg onboard Singapore Airlines SQ479. One is a 44-year-old male Singapore permanent resident who arrived in Singapore from Mozambique, transiting through Johannesburg. The other passenger is a 41-year-old female Singaporean who arrived in Singapore from South Africa.
MOH noted that their pre-departure tests on Nov 29 were negative for Covid-19 infection.
On Dec 5, another patient was reported to have tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant. /TISG
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