Ong Ye Kung: With holidays coming, there are bound to be more Covid infections

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Sunday (Dec 4) that with the upcoming holidays causing more people to go out and get together, Covid infections are expected to be on the rise.

“So there will be a new wave. But it is not something that we have not seen before,” he added, speaking to members of the media at Nanyang Junior College, on the sidelines of a Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) event.

In the last four weeks, there have been 44,571 new COVID-19 infections in Singapore, the great majority of whom (99.7 per cent) are either asymptomatic or experience mild symptoms. Very few—0.04 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively—have been warded in intensive care units or have needed oxygen supplementation.

The seven-day moving average of local cases stands at 1,023.

The Health Minister also told the press that this year, there were three COVID-19 waves that affected Singapore. In April it was the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant, while in July it was the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants that struck. Most recently, the wave of infections was driven by the XBB variant. 

Additionally, the Government will also be keeping a watchful eye on Covid infections in other countries, CNA reported Mr Ong as saying, especially in countries where winter could see an uptick in cases, as it’s possible that a new variant of concern may emerge.

Developments in one particular country need to be monitored as well, Mr Ong said.

Some of the Covid restrictions in China have been lifted of late. 

“When China opens up more – it looks like they are shifting their policy – and if they do so, then there are bound to be more infections. You can see that more and more people are infected in China and when that happens, given the density and enormous population of China, there are bound to be new variants,” said Mr Ong. /TISG

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