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Multi-Ministry Task Force co-chair Gan Kim Yong said in a press conference on Saturday (Oct. 2) that we may start to see 5,000 daily infections from next week.
The vast majority, however, will be asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms, and can recover safely at home, he said.
3,200 daily cases soon, 5,000 daily cases by mid-Oct
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press release that they expect the daily number of Covid-19 cases to soon surpass 3,200 cases at the current trajectory.
Singapore entered the Stabilisation Phase on Sep. 27, which saw the tightening of restrictions on dine-in, extension of Home-Based Learning, and Work-From-Home as a default.
According to MOH, it usually takes a week, or more, before the full impact of tightened measures can be observed.
However, the rate of increase in Covid-19 cases have appeared to slow down slightly, and the time taken for community cases to double has increased from eight days to about ten days, said MOH.
Currently, the percentage of patients who require ICU care remains low, at about 0.2 per cent, with 34 ICU beds are occupied.
However, MOH said that with more daily Covid-19 cases, the number of patients who require ICU will be expected to rise as well.
MOH added that they will continue to monitor the local Covid-19 situation in the coming weeks.
Seniors encouraged to take precautions
MOH maintains that there remains strong evidence that vaccination is protective against severe disease outcomes.
The proportion of unvaccinated cases who need intensive care, or passed away, is at 1.67 per cent, whereas the proportion of fully vaccinated cases who need intensive care, or passed away, is at 0.12 per cent, or about 14 times less than the unvaccinated.
Table courtesy of MOH.
MOH said that the concern remains with the elderly, and those who are unvaccinated in particular, as seniors are at a higher risk of severe illness.
In addition, most of these seniors tend to have co-morbidities, which only increases their risk further.
As such, MOH encouraged all seniors, especially the minority who are unvaccinated, to take extra precautions and avoid crowded places during this period.
According to MOH, the proportion of Covid-19 cases who are seniors aged 60 and above has remained stable at about 27 per cent to 32 per cent in the past 28 days.
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