552 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore; 1 imported case tests preliminarily positive for Omicron
There were 552 new Covid-19 infections in Singapore on Sunday (Dec 5), down from 743 on Saturday, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).
This is the third day in a row that new virus cases have fallen below 1,000.
Among the cases is a new imported Covid-19 patient who has tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant.
The 37-year-old male Singapore permanent resident arrived here from South Africa on Dec 1 and was on the same flight as two previous Omicron cases. He is fully vaccinated and has mild symptoms. He had not interacted with the community and there is currently no evidence of any community transmission from the case, said MOH.
The ministry reported last Thursday that two passengers who arrived in Singapore from South Africa on a Singapore Airlines flight had tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant.
The new case is currently recovering in an isolation ward at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
His pre-departure Covid-19 test in Johannesburg on Nov 29 was negative. Upon arrival in Singapore, he was isolated at a stay-home notice (SHN) dedicated facility and his polymerase chain reaction tests on Dec 1 and 3 came back negative.
On Saturday, he developed a fever and sore throat and was taken to NCID, where he tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant.
The National Public Health Laboratory is conducting whole genome sequencing to confirm the variant.
All 18 other passengers on the flight have tested negative for Covid-19 infection and are isolated at designated SHN facilities.
In Sunday's update, MOH said the intensive care unit (ICU) utilisation rate was at 51.2 per cent, down from 54.7 per cent on Saturday.
The Covid-19 weekly infection growth rate was at 0.66, up from 0.63 on Saturday.
This is the 23rd day in a row that the growth rate has been below one.
The number refers to the ratio of community cases in the past week over the week before. A weekly infection growth rate that is consistently below one shows that the number of new weekly Covid-19 cases is falling.
Thirteen people aged between 52 and 96 died of complications linked to Covid-19, said MOH.
All had various underlying medical conditions, the ministry added, without giving further details.
The latest deaths take the total number of Covid-19 fatalities in Singapore to 759.
The new infections comprised 523 cases in the community, 14 in migrant worker dormitories and 15 imported cases.
The total number of cases in Singapore now stands at 269,211.
Over the last 28 days, 98.7 per cent of local Covid-19 cases were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, 0.8 per cent required oxygen supplementation in a general ward, 0.2 per cent were in the ICU, and 0.2 per cent died.
As at Saturday, 87 per cent of the total population have either completed the full vaccination regimen or had two shots, and 28 per cent have taken booster shots.
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