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Singapore’s worst-case scenario has arrived.
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Clement Yong
Feb 05, 2022 05:38 pm
Doctors have called for calm after the tripling of locally transmitted Covid-19 infections on Friday (Feb 4) to 13,046 positive cases, putting it down to a backlog during the Chinese New Year period, when clinics were closed and people found it inauspicious to seek a medical diagnosis.
While the spike in numbers is at first glance alarming, doctors said the focus should remain on hospitalisation and intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy rates.
They felt the headline numbers should no longer lead to a regressive increase in social restrictions, which have caused pandemic fatigue and stopped people from fully accepting the virus as an endemic state of affairs in the new normal.
“When the clinics reopened on Thursday, there was a large backlog of cases which probably accounts for the sudden surge,” said Professor Paul Tambyah, president of the Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection.
He noted that at the National University Hospital, where he is a senior consultant, “we have seen a steady climb in the number of cases over the past few days rather than a sudden surge – that is probably because we were open all through the holiday”.
Taken at face value, Friday’s numbers also should not cause undue alarm. He added: “The numbers were climbing anyway and the Government’s original mathematical model predicted cases reaching 13,000 a day, with later comments from ministers suggesting that we could go to 20,000-plus cases a day.”
Friday’s numbers more than tripled from the 4,087 cases reported on Thursday, reaching a record high.
About 80 per cent of these were identified by antigen rapid tests, indicating that they had only mild symptoms and were of low risk.
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Despite the surge, there has been no corresponding uptick in the number of people hospitalised, compared with the day before.
Covid-19 patients still occupy 15, or just 4 per cent, of the 375 ICU beds available – an encouraging sign that the pandemic is under control, those interviewed said.
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weehingthong 