On Christmas Day, some Singaporeans might be spending the day giving gifts to their nearest and dearest.
However, the Omicron Variant is the gift that keeps on giving, and it’s so far given us a record number of imported cases.
And on Christmas Eve (24 Dec), it was particularly generous. Singapore recorded 82 Omicron cases – our largest number in a single day.
65 of these cases were imported and 17 were in the community.
The staggering number of Omicron cases reported on Friday (24 Dec) was a “one-time substantial increase”, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
Just 2 days earlier, on Wednesday (22 Dec), Singapore had 65 imported Omicron cases in total. There were also 6 in the community.
Confirming Friday’s 82 cases on their website that night, the ministry also explained that this jump from their previous update was due to a change in testing practice.
MOH said that from Friday (24 Dec), it started categorising cases as Omicron if they tested positive for S-gene target failure (SGTF).
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this means that during the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, 1 of the 3 target genes is not detected.
In cases of SGTF, additional whole genome sequencing (WGS) won’t be necessary to confirm the Omicron classification, MOH added.
That’s because, they explained,
Based on our local experience, if a person tests positive for SGTF, it is very likely that it is an Omicron variant.
The “one-time substantial increase” is thus due to the samples that are pending WGS being included in the 24 Dec count.
This is also practiced in other countries, the ministry said, and doesn’t change our existing public health actions.
They’re already “triggered on the basis of detecting SGTF”, MOH added.
As for the total number of new Covid-19 cases of any variant, Singapore reported 265 on Friday (24 Dec).
That’s a drop from Thursday’s total of 322.
Of these, 177 were in the community, 9 were from dormitories and 79 were imported.
The 79 imported cases is 10 fewer than the 89 reported on Thursday (23 Dec) – a record high.
Our weekly infection growth rate is 0.52.
While we hit a record in Omicron cases, there was also some good news for the festive season.
No deaths were reported on Christmas Eve – for the 1st time in more than 3 months.
The last time that happened was on 19 Sep.
While the surge in Omicron cases is cause for concern, it may comfort some to know that it’s due to a change in testing.
That means they were here all along – and the number might not increase by so much in coming days.
Having no patient pass away is arguably the more important achievement, as if the fatality rate drops we can transit to living with Covid-19 more confidently.
Hopefully, our greatest Christmas gift will be that fewer and fewer people succumb to the disease.
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Featured image adapted from @butch.bustria on Instagram.
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