2023-12-16 22:14:41
The Singapore Ministry of Health recommended that the island’s citizens protect themselves with masks, especially indoors, given the spike in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.
The health authorities pointed out in a statement the day before that the number of covid-19 cases increased to 56,043 in the week of December 3 to 9, the last one for which there is a count, which represents an increase of 75% of cases. infections compared to the previous week.
The ministry adds that it is working with hospitals and the population to develop a “contingency plan,” which includes ensuring the human resources necessary to care for patients and delaying non-urgent surgeries to “maximize bed capacity in the event that intensive care is needed.
Likewise, it adds that the “vast majority” of infections are due to the JN.1 variant of covid-19, subtype of BA 2.86.
The recommendation to use a mask comes almost two years after the Asian city-state, which maintained a zero-infection policy at the beginning, began reopening the country, consolidated throughout 2022.
Singapore reached two years into the pandemic with one of the lowest Covid-19 mortality rates on the planet, achieved in part thanks to the semi-closure of its borders and extreme surveillance of infections and socialization, and reached the endemic phase without having suffered episodes of hospital saturation.
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), 1,933 people have died from covid-19 in the country, of 5.4 million inhabitants, since the beginning of the pandemic, and almost 2.8 million cases have been confirmed, with the infections mostly concentrated initially in the migrant worker barracks.
With information from Efe
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