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Record 89 of 322 new COVID cases in Singapore imported; 2 deaths

A passenger arriving from Amsterdam pushes a luggage trolley at Changi Airport in Singapore on October 20, 2021, a day after the country began quarantine-free entry for fully vaccinated passengers from eight countries, part of a plan to ease restrictions as the business hub gears up to live with the coronavirus. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
A passenger arriving from Amsterdam pushes a luggage trolley at Changi Airport in Singapore on 20 October, 2021. (PHOTO: AFP via Getty Images)

NOTE: The MOH has stopped issuing daily media releases on infection statistics. In line with the MOH's announcement, Gov.sg has also stopped its daily WhatsApp updates on such statistics.

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (23 December) confirmed 322 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore – bringing the country's total case count to 277,042 – as well as two deaths due to the disease.

Thursday marks the 21st day in a row with less than 1,000 cases reported in the city-state.

It is also the 95th day in a row with fatalities from COVID-19 reported in Singapore, with 97 people having succumbed to it this month. No details were provided by the MOH on the two fatalities reported on Thursday.

Of the new cases, 233 are local – 226 are in the community and seven are residents of migrant worker dormitories. The remaining 89 are imported, the highest reported in a day since the start of the pandemic here. The figure overtakes the previous high of 76 such cases on Wednesday.

The ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before – or the weekly infection growth rate – is 0.57, up from Wednesday's 0.54. It is the 41st day in a row where the figure is lower than 1.

Apart from the 820 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) in a separate statement on Thursday said that short message service (SMS) invitations have been sent to about 110,000 parents or guardians of students in the ministry's primary schools and Madrasahs, who would be in Primary 4 to 6 in 2022, to register for vaccination.

As of 7pm, more than one in three students have been signed up by their parents or guardians for vaccination, and all slots for December have been fully taken up, it added.

Singapore on Wednesday also announced that the sale of new tickets for designated vaccinated travel lane (VTL) flights and buses for entry into Singapore will be paused until from 11.59pm on 20 January, in response to the growing number of Omicron cases here.

As of early Tuesday morning, Singapore has 71 cases of the new variant, including 65 imported and six local. A new cluster at an Anytime Fitness branch at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre has also been suspected to be linked to Omicron.

50 require oxygen supplementation; 26 in ICU

A total of 417 cases were discharged on Thursday, while 419 are hospitalised. Over the last 28 days, of the 17,524 infected individuals, 98.6 per cent had no or mild symptoms.

There are currently 50 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation.

A total of 26 cases are in the intensive care unit (ICU) – six are unstable and under close monitoring to prevent further deterioration, while 20 are critically ill and intubated.

The current overall ICU utilisation rate is 50 per cent, down from 52.7 per cent on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, the total number of individuals who have completed their full regimen or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines is 96 per cent of the eligible population.

Among the total population, 87 per cent have done so, while 88 per cent have received at least one dose, and 35 per cent have received their booster shots.

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