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Daily Covid-19 cases may reach 5,000 by mid-October but vast majority will have no or mild symptoms: MOH

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s daily Covid-19 case tally could soon exceed 3,200 and may even reach 5,000 by mid-October, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Saturday (Oct 2).

Singapore will soon reach a daily Covid-19 case count of 3,200 and may even see 5,000 coronavirus cases daily by mid-October, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Saturday (Oct 2).

Singapore will soon reach a daily Covid-19 case count of 3,200 and may even see 5,000 coronavirus cases daily by mid-October, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Saturday (Oct 2).

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  • Daily Covid-19 cases could soon exceed 3,200 and hit 5,000 by mid-October, the Ministry of Health said
  • But most cases, as now, will have no or mild symptoms, it added
  • Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said Singaporeans should not be too anxious or fearful of the daily case numbers
  • But he urged patience among those calling for measures to be loosened quicker, as healthcare capacity needs to be ramped up  
  • MOH stressed that it is safe for fully vaccinated people between the ages of 12 and 69 to recover at home from Covid-19

 

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s daily Covid-19 case tally could soon exceed 3,200 and may even reach 5,000 by mid-October, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Saturday (Oct 2).

Even so, it said that the vast majority — about 98 per cent — of infected patients either have no or mild symptoms and can recover from the illness at home.

Only 0.2 per cent of Covid-19 patients require intensive care, MOH added, with 34 beds in the intensive care unit (ICU) currently occupied. 

Still, the ministry said: “We expect the number to rise (and) will continue to monitor the capacity and utilisation closely.”

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong noted during a briefing held by the Government’s Covid-19 task force that it is now taking longer for the number of Covid-19 cases to double — where previously cases doubled every seven days, it now takes about 10 days.

But it is difficult to tell when the current wave of cases will reach its peak, he said.

He added that the experts the Government has consulted have given a range of forecasts on what the peak would be, from between 5,000 and 10,000 daily cases. 

“No model can predict with absolute certainty what the epidemic curve will look like in the next few weeks, but it just simply means that we have to be prepared for this range of possible outcomes,” he said.

In stressing the importance of getting vaccinated, MOH said an unvaccinated Covid-19 patient is 14 times more likely to need intensive care or die from the coronavirus, than a patient who is fully vaccinated.

Seniors, particularly unvaccinated seniors, continue to be at a higher risk of severe illness, the ministry added, as most of them tend to have other underlying illnesses.

Of those in Singapore who have gotten infected by Covid-19, MOH said about 27 to 32 per cent are people above 60 years and this proportion has remained stable in the past 28 days.

There are still 80,000 seniors who have not received their shots, noted Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.

“We urge all seniors, especially the minority of unvaccinated seniors, to take extra precautions and avoid crowded places during this period,” he said.

LOCKDOWN VS LOOSENING

Mr Wong also noted that amid the current wave of cases, there have been divergent views among Singaporeans about what should be done — while one camp is calling for tighter safety restrictions, the other wants measures to be loosened further to live with an endemic Covid-19.

To the group calling for more restrictions, or even another lockdown, Mr Wong said Singapore has “gone beyond that point” as the majority of the population is already inoculated against the disease.

“We are no longer solely focusing on headline numbers. Our focus is on the people who are seriously ill and to make sure that our healthcare system is able to take care of them,” he said.

“Let’s not get too carried away by the headline numbers or be too anxious or fearful about those numbers.”

As to the group asking for measures to be lifted quicker, Mr Wong asked for patience, reiterating that the “overall strategy to reopening has not changed”.

He stressed that this is the first time Singapore has experienced such a big wave of infections, and this has caused tremendous stress on the healthcare system and healthcare workers. 

As such, the Government is working to ramp up capacity in the healthcare system and this will take some time, he added.

Still, Mr Wong said Singapore should be prepared that this current wave will not be the last major one that the city-state will see, as many in the population are still “Covid-naive” as the Government was able to keep infections low last year when the pandemic hit.

This is unlike many European countries, he said, that saw high infection rates for a long time and saw large waves of infections before they managed to get their population vaccinated.

Though they are able to resume more social and economic activities due to their much higher level of natural immunity, they paid a “high price” last year, suffering many fatalities, he added.

Mr Wong said eventually, with the country’s high vaccination rate and, in time, with a higher level of natural immunity, Singapore may “months later” reach a stage similar to that of these European countries.

“So the bottomline is that we remain committed to our reopening plans and to be a Covid-resilient nation, and we will do so while safeguarding lives and protecting livelihoods of everyone in Singapore,” he said.

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HEALTHCARE CAPACITY

Giving an update on the capacity of the healthcare system here, MOH said it has set up four Covid-19 treatment facilities with a capacity of 580 beds over the past week.

These facilities will be used to care for higher-risk patients who need closer observation but do not need hospital care, such as elderly patients with underlying health conditions but have no or mild Covid-19 symptoms.

The ministry plans to have nine such treatment facilities up and running with a capacity of 3,700 beds by the end of October.

Mr Ong said during the press conference that MOH has prepared 134 ICU beds and plans to raise the number to 180.

Non-ICU hospital beds is the area where the Government is facing the biggest crunch, and Mr Ong said there are currently 1,700 such beds available in hospitals for Covid-19 patients.

He noted that the crunch is due to hospitals admitting patients for close observation even though their symptoms are not severe enough to warrant acute hospital care.

The setting up of the Covid-19 treatment facilities will help to offset this, he said. 

Mr Ong also called on general practitioners and nurses to volunteer to run some of these facilities.

“So if you're available to help us, we welcome you to volunteer at the SG Healthcare Corps.”

MOH also stressed that fully vaccinated people between the ages of 12 and 69 should continue to rest and recover at home under the home recovery programme.

“We would like to reassure these individuals that it is safe to do so as vaccination is highly protective against severe illness as local and overseas data has consistently shown.”

MOH will still assess Covid-19 patients whose home conditions are not suitable for home recovery on a case-by-case basis and allow some of them to recover from the disease at a community care facility, where there are currently 4,300 beds, the ministry added.

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