Singapore should expect a new wave of COVID-19 Omicron cases, says Minister Lawrence Wong

Singaporeans can expect a new wave of COVID-19 cases soon, said Minister for Finance Mr Lawrence Wong in a Facebook post on Dec 27. 

In his post, he wrote that this is due to the Omicron variant likely being more contagious than the Delta variant.

The first local Omicron case was reported on Dec 9 and by Dec 25, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a total of 546 Omicron cases in Singapore. 

This included 103 locally transmitted cases. It was also announced that there were 13 unlinked community cases of the Omicron variant and 78 cases were from local-linked community transmission.

On Dec 26, there were 104 new Omicron cases and 31 of which were locally transmitted. Just yesterday (Dec 27), there were 101 reported cases and 22 were locally transmitted, bringing the new total number of Omicron cases to 751.

The Government is managing the cases by adjusting protocols, just like how they managed the previous wave. This also means that those infected or in close contact can recover and isolate themselves at home. 

In his post, Mr Wong said: “It is inevitable that Omicron will spread in our community as it has in countries everywhere. We must expect a new wave of cases in the coming days and weeks.

“But we have done whatever we can to prepare for this next wave, and we can weather through it together as one people.”