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| Merlion Park in Singapore / Korea Times file |
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This is the first time that the city state's daily COVID-19 tally has breached the 5,000 mark.
In its nightly update on the coronavirus situation, the Ministry of Health said that the "infection numbers are unusually high today, mostly due to many COVID-positive cases detected by the testing laboratories within a few hours in the afternoon".
It said the ministry was "looking into this unusual surge in cases within a relatively short window, and closely monitoring the trends for the next few days".
As of Wednesday, 76 patients were unstable and under close monitoring in intensive care units, down from 79 the day before, and 66 patients were critically ill and intubated in ICUs ― one fewer than on Tuesday.
The number of patients requiring oxygen support went up from 289 on Tuesday to 308 on Wednesday.
Of Singapore's 357 ICU beds, 285 were occupied on Wednesday ― 142 by COVID-19 patients ― putting ICU utilization rate at 79.8 percent. The ministry said it was "in the process of standing up more ICU beds".
Among the new infections recorded on Wednesday, 4,651 were in the community, 661 were in migrant worker dormitories and the remaining 12 were imported.
On Wednesday, there were 728 people above the age of 60 among the community cases, the ministry said. The 10 who died were all aged between 54 and 96.
"All except an unvaccinated case had various underlying medical conditions," the ministry said without giving more details.
In total, 349 people have died of COVID-19 complications in Singapore, including 248 this month alone. The city state has registered a total of 184,419 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic last year.
