People wearing masks walk along Orchard Road in Singapore on October 1, 2021. (Photo: CNA)

Singapore – Singapore’s current Omicron wave has peaked and the number of infections across the country is now declining, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told the Parliament on March 9.

Singapore’s daily caseload totalled around 22,000 on March 8, compared to some 26,000 two weeks ago. Among them, 1,499 were hospitalised, including 49 in intensive care units.

Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Health, said clinics run by general practitioners, as well as hospitals and healthcare workers, are still under pressure caused by the Omicron wave. Much of this pressure comes from people who remain unvaccinated.

He said 3 percent of the country’s adult population who were not fully vaccinated accounted for 25 percent of ICU cases and deaths. Against this, people who have received their booster shots are 33 times less likely than those who are not fully vaccinated, to die from COVID-19, he emphasised.

Singapore is still enforcing vaccination-differentiated safe management measures (VDS) to protect people who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated while allowing the others to resume normal activities.

To step up ICU beds significantly, as of January, the country has provided training for more than 800 non-ICU nurses as a reserve to augment ICU nursing manpower by up to 57 percent.