18,545 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore reported on Feb 17, 1,472 patients hospitalised

The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 18,545 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Thursday (Feb 17), including 7,534 who were aged between 12 and 39. 

This is 1,662 more cases than the 16,883 cases reported on Wednesday.

There were also 1,472 cases hospitalised on Thursday, up from 1,352 the day before. Of these, 164 cases require oxygen supplementation and 32 cases are in the Intensive Care Unit.

There were also 9,425 cases discharged from the hospital over the past day.

Of the COVID-19 cases reported on Thursday, 3,320 were detected through Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests. This included 3,157 local cases.

Another 15,225 cases were detected through Antigen Rapid Tests (ART) and assessed by a doctor to have mild symptoms and of low risk. Of these, 15,162 were local cases.

In total, there were 18,319 local transmission cases.

The weekly COVID-19 infection growth rate decreased slightly to 1.28, down from Wednesday’s 1.29. The growth rate refers to the ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before and a weekly infection growth rate above one indicates an increasing number of new weekly cases.

Four deaths related to COVID-19 were reported on Thursday, taking the national death toll to 930.

In the last 28 days, 222,181 cases have been recorded, of which 99.7 per cent had no or mild symptoms and 0.3 per cent have required oxygen supplementation.

As of Feb 16, 94 per cent of the eligible population and 90 per cent of the total population are fully vaccinated, 92 per cent have received at least one dose and 65 per cent have received boosters.