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Singapore reported 4,832 new Covid-19 cases as of 12pm on Jan. 26.

Locally transmitted cases:  4,560

Imported cases: 272

Death: 0

Death toll from coronavirus complications: 850

The country has recorded 327,602 Covid-19 cases in total since the start of the pandemic.

GP cases

The Ministry of Health (MOH) website is presenting the daily new Covid-19 cases detected via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing separately from new confirmed GP cases, which are detected via rapid antigen testing (ART) and have been assessed by a doctor to have low mild symptoms and low risk.

New infections detected via ART: 2,996 (2,983 local cases + 13 imported cases)

Weekly infection growth rate: 2.50 (down from 2.68 the day before)

A figure below 1 indicates that the number of new weekly Covid-19 cases is falling.

Hospitalisations

In ICU: 11

Patients in hospital: 580

Requiring oxygen supplementation: 44

Change in reporting of daily cases

As of Jan. 21, MOH will stop its current practice of highlighting the number of Omicron variant cases that are part of the daily Covid-19 cases.

This is due to the Omicron variant dominating the current infection wave.

MOH's updates will now include both new Covid-19 cases that have been confirmed via a PCR test, as well as new GP-Protocol 2 cases.

These numbers will also be backdated to Jan. 6.

Last week, the number of GP-Protocol 2 cases shot up to around 400 to 500 cases per day.

This week, it hit over 1,000 cases per day.

"MOH has reviewed the situation and decided that it is better to include the GP-Protocol 2 cases in our daily updates as this will give a better picture of the epidemic situation in Singapore," Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said.

As a result, MOH daily updates will register a drastic increase in the daily number of new cases.

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Top image by Karen Lui.