The Singapore Health Ministry has reassured people that the numbers are not as high as during the pandemic. - ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE (Bloomberg): Singapore hospitalisations have increased amid a surge in local Covid-19 infections in the past two weeks, the health ministry said.
Estimated cases rose to 32,035 in the week of Nov. 26 to Dec 2 compared to 22,094 cases a week ago, according to a statement Friday.
Average daily Covid-19 hospitalizations increased to 225 from 136 the week before.
The surge in infections may be due to waning population immunity and increased interactions during the year-end travel, among other factors, the ministry said.
The Straits Times reported that Covid-19 infections and hospitalisations are increasing in Singapore, putting a strain on hospitals here.
The Ministry of Health (MOH), which raised the alert, has also reassured people that the numbers are not as high as during the pandemic, and that the circulating variants are not known to cause more severe illness.
In the week ended Dec 2, 32,035 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 – the highest number of infections recorded this year. The previous high was 28,410 infections a week in March.
The latest number is almost 10,000 more than the 22,094 diagnosed the previous week. The number of weekly infections has been hovering around 15,000 over the past two to three months.
The number of people being hospitalised and needing intensive care treatment has also gone up.
An MOH statement on Dec 8 said the average daily Covid-19 hospitalisations rose to 225 from 136 the week before, and the average daily intensive care unit (ICU) cases increased to four cases compared with one case in the previous week.
It said: “This has added workload to our hospitals, which are already busy.”
Nine people severely ill with Covid-19 were admitted to a hospital ICU in the week of Nov 26 to Dec 2, up from four the previous week. But as hospitalisation and need for intensive care treatment usually lag behind infections, the numbers could go up in the coming weeks, according to the report in Straits Times.
