No spike, low daily Covid-19 cases despite CNY holiday: Ong Ye Kung
The Covid-19 situation in Singapore has stabilised, with new daily cases remaining low over the Chinese New Year holiday, said Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung on Friday.
Daily recorded case numbers were in the “low three digits” over the long weekend, dropping to 78 on Monday, Mr Ong said.
He noted it had been a while since the number of daily Covid-19 infections had been in the double digit range, though he acknowledged this could be due to the public holiday.
This is the first Chinese New Year celebration since pandemic restrictions were eased last year.
There was also no spike in reported cases following the long weekend, with Covid-19 cases going up to about 500 as of Thursday, and emergency departments at hospitals also managed to hold their ground, he said.
“I know we no longer scrutinise (daily Covid-19) numbers like that, but over Chinese New Year, I looked at the numbers and the situation closely, and I think things are stabilised,” said Mr Ong.
He was speaking at an event marking the official opening of the NTUC Health Jurong Spring nursing home at Jurong West Street 52.
The Health Minister said an ageing population was probably the “biggest social issue” facing this generation.
He pointed out that the pandemic had delayed the opening of many nursing homes here, resulting in a bottleneck as hospital patients requiring long-term care could not be discharged to nursing homes to receive rehabilitory care.
This in a turn caused a crunch in hospitals and their emergency departments, he said, adding this showed the importance of having the whole healthcare ecosystem working in sync.
Mr Ong noted many here are concerned about China’s reopening, and whether surging infection numbers there would impact Singapore.
The low number of flights between China and Singapore - 38 flights per week at present - means imported cases coming from the country are very low, he said.
There were no imported Covid-19 cases from China over the past week, he added.
The coronavirus situation here is stable, and the authorities look forward to going back to “even greater normalcy in the not-too distant future”, he added.
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