Singapore has long since treated Covid-19 as endemic, ceasing the tracking of cases as religiously as we used to. But that doesn’t mean that the authorities have stopped recording data completely.
Latest reports from the Ministry of Health (MOH) show that the number of new cases has been rising quite significantly in recent weeks.
Most notably, the figures stood at over 10,000 new cases on average each week, for two consecutive weeks.
Since changing its stance towards the coronavirus, MOH has been tracking average cases per Epi-week rather than daily.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an Epi-week or Epidemological week is simply a complete week. Health ministries around the globe may consider Sunday as the first day of the week while others may recognise it to be Saturday or Monday.
Singapore’s weekly infectious disease bulletin updates by MOH seem to show that our Epi-week starts on a Sunday.
By virtue of that, the latest Covid-19 statistics thus indicate that the average number of new cases per week exceeded 10,000 for the two weeks leading up to 18 Mar.
Source: Ministry of Health
Based on the graph, that’s more than double the numbers in previous weeks.
As if in tandem, the number of hospitalisation cases also increased in the same weeks, exceeding 120 in the most recent update.
Source: Ministry of Health
A large number appear to be patients aged 60 years old and above.
Among those in hospitals, five were in the intensive care unit (ICU) as of 18 Mar.
Source: Ministry of Health
Perhaps a form of consolation could be in the fact that the number of Covid-19-related deaths fell between January and February, from 12 to five.
Vaccination status in the population also appears promising, with nearly or more than 90% of people across all age groups having at least the minimum protection.
Doctors interviewed by 8world News claimed that they have been seeing more patients testing positive for Covid-19 in March. These individuals, however, mostly demonstrate mild symptoms.
Among their suspicions for the rise is that people are becoming laxer with measures such as taking antigen rapid tests (ART).
With the Government also eventually ceasing subsidies for Covid-19 testing and treatment, they foresee cases rising further.
Therefore, eligible individuals are advised to keep their vaccinations up-to-date, especially since vaccines are still free for most residents in Singapore.
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Featured image by MS News.
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