Coronavirus: Singapore sees record 5,324 cases in ‘unusual surge’; Japan approves vaccine boosters for all eligible
- The city state’s Health Ministry said it would look into the ‘unusually high’ infection numbers resulting from the surge in positive tests
- Elsewhere, New Zealand says it will begin scaling back border restrictions next month, while Japan has approved making vaccine booster shots available to all eligible
Ten new deaths on Wednesday raised the toll to 349, after 3,277 infections the previous day, while the ICU utilisation rate is nearing 80 per cent, despite a population that is 84 per cent fully vaccinated, with 14 per cent receiving booster doses.
“The infection numbers are unusually high today, mostly due to many Covid-positive cases detected by the testing laboratories within a few hours in the afternoon,” the health ministry said in a statement.
“The Ministry of Health is looking into this unusual surge in cases within a relatively short window, and closely monitoring the trends for the next few days,” it added in Wednesday’s statement.
02:07
Singapore adds 8 more countries to quarantine-free list for vaccinated travellers
While nearly 98.7 per cent of the past month’s 90,203 cases had no symptoms, or only mild ones, about 0.2 per cent of those had died, and 0.1 per cent each were being monitored closely in intensive care units or were critically ill and intubated there.
About 72 ICU beds were vacant by Wednesday, at an overall ICU use rate of 79.8 per cent, with 142 coronavirus sufferers accounting for about half of occupied beds.