• There were 3,474 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore on Nov 17
• This was 1,405 more infections compared to the day before
• Seven deaths were registered for the day, bringing the tally here to 619
• There are 430 ICU beds, of which 269 are now occupied, including 112 by Covid-19 patients
• The ratio of community cases in the past week compared with the week before is 0.89

SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday (Nov 17) recorded 3,474 new cases of Covid-19 and seven more deaths due to complications from the disease.

The daily case count is significantly up from the 2,069 reported on Tuesday.

In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that there were 48 patients who were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care units (ICUs) to prevent further deterioration. This is down from the 54 reported the day before.

In addition, there were 64 patients who were critically ill and intubated in ICUs — four fewer than on Tuesday.

The number of patients who require oxygen support rose from 234 on Tuesday to 242 on Wednesday.

In total, there are 430 ICU beds, of which 269 are now occupied — 112 by Covid-19 patients.

The overall ICU utilisation rate stands at 62.6 per cent, down from 63.3 per cent on Tuesday.

MOH stressed that people aged 60 and above continue to be more adversely affected by Covid-19, especially if they are not vaccinated.

Among the new infections recorded on Wednesday, 3,320 were in the community, 144 were residents of migrant workers’ dormitories, and the remaining 10 were imported.

There were 506 people aged 60 and older among the community cases.

The ratio of community cases in the past week, compared with the week before, stood at 0.89 — a slight increase from the ratio of 0.88 reported on Tuesday.

This is the fifth day in a row that the week-on-week infection ratio rate has been below 1.0.

The seven patients who died were aged between 47 and 83.

“All of them had various underlying medical conditions,” MOH said.

In total, 619 people have died of Covid-19 complications here.

Singapore has registered a total of 244,815 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

LOCAL SITUATION

A total of 2,555 recovered patients were discharged on Wednesday, including 401 aged 60 and above.

There are still, however, 1,468 patients who remain hospitalised — 33 fewer than on Tuesday.

Over the last 28 days, the proportion of local coronavirus cases who had mild or no symptoms was 98.7 per cent, MOH said. During the same period:

• 0.8 per cent of patients needed oxygen aid
• 0.1 per cent were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care
• 0.1 per cent were critically ill and intubated in ICUs
• 0.2 per cent died

CLUSTERS UNDER MONITORING

Among the large Covid-19 clusters that are being closely monitored by the ministry, nine had new cases — five more than on Tuesday.

A total of 24 new infections were added to these nine large clusters.

VACCINATIONS

As of Nov 16, MOH said that 94 per cent of the eligible population — those aged 12 and above — have been fully vaccinated.

Among the total population, 85 per cent have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and 86 per cent received at least one dose of a vaccine.

MOH added that 21 per cent of the total population have received their vaccine boosters.

In the past seven days:

• The number of fully vaccinated patients who were critically ill in ICU was at 0.6 per 100,000 people and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 5.2
• The number of fully vaccinated patients who died was 0.1 per 100,000 people and for non-fully vaccinated patients, it was 0.9
• For fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and above, the number who were critically ill under intensive care was 2.0 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 46.3
• The number of fully vaccinated patients aged 60 and older who died was 0.3 and for those not fully vaccinated, it was 9.6