(Bloomberg) -- Singapore leaders are closely watching intensive care unit cases to make sure the hospital system won’t be overwhelmed, as overall COVID-19 infection cases breached the 1,000 mark for a second consecutive day, cabinet ministers said.
The next one to two weeks “will be critical,” Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said in a Facebook post late Sunday. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in a separate post that while ICU capacity is “still holding up,” accident and emergency departments and general wards in hospitals are coming “under pressure.” Both sit on the task force that handles the virus situation.
Singapore’s plan to shift away from a Covid-zero elimination strategy, toward living with endemic Covid, relies on managing serious cases through mass vaccination. The current rise is a test of that strategy. The number of serious cases in ICU or in need of oxygen supplementation more than doubled to 139 as of Sunday, from 61 a week ago.
Singapore’s vaccination rate of 82% is among the highest in the world according to data compiled by Bloomberg. About 0.2% of infected cases here are at risk of needing ICU care, Wong said, citing data from the Ministry of Health. While that’s far lower than many western nations that have opened up faster than Singapore, government leaders say they need to ensure ICU cases don’t spike alongside rising overall cases.
“Some have told me that based on our high vaccine coverage, and the current ICU figure... we don’t have to worry,” Wong said. “But in fact the ICU numbers can change very quickly and we cannot afford to be complacent.”
The country reported 1,012 new local cases on Sunday. Of the total, 873 are currently warded in hospitals, 118 are of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation, and 21 in the ICU, according to a statement from the ministry. At its peak, early in the pandemic, Singapore had as many as 32 ICU Covid patients.
Singapore has urged younger vaccinated people to recover at home. More community care facilities will be set up to provide clinical care to patients with mild symptoms or who have underlying conditions that require a closer monitoring, the health ministry said in a separate statement.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Advertisement