While the Omicron variant continues to spark concern all over the globe, it’s the Delta strain that’s continuing to infect people here.

Case numbers rose for the second day in a row, albeit still under 1,500.

Meanwhile our weekly infection growth rate – the ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before – dropped to 0.66 from Monday’s 0.69.

If you missed the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) update on our COVID-19 situation yesterday, here’s everything you need to know:

1,239 New COVID-19 Cases

1,239 new COVID-19 cases were reported yesterday (30 Nov), an increase of 136 from the previous day’s tally.

The cases comprise 1,193 infections in the community, 24 in migrant worker dormitories, and 22 imported infections.

Among the local cases are 179 seniors above 60.

8 COVID-19 Fatalities

Eight more COVID-19 cases succumbed to the virus, bringing our death toll to 718.

Aged between 47 and 87, all of them had various underlying medical conditions.

MOH Closely Monitoring 2 Large Clusters

The health ministry said it is closely monitoring two large clusters with new cases.

The bigger of the two is at ECON Healthcare Nursing Home in Chai Chee, which grew to 42 after one more case was linked to it. 40 residents and two staff members have been infected.

One more infection was also linked to the LC Nursing Home in Siglap, taking its total to 16. All but one of the cases are residents.

1,113 COVID-19 Cases in Hospital; 78 in ICU

At the moment, there are 1,113 COVID-19 cases warded in hospitals, most of whom are well and under observation.

216 serious cases require oxygen supplementation and 78 are in the intensive care unit, comprising 13 cases who are unstable and under close monitoring, and 65 who are critically ill and intubated.

Our ICU utilisation rate is currently at 58.5%, up from Monday’s 51.2%.

Over the past seven days, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who have been critically ill in the ICU are at 0.5 and 4.3 per 100,000 population respectively.

The same figures for seniors aged 60 and above are 1.8 and 39.5 respectively.

Over the same period, the number of fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated cases who died are 0.1 and 0.4 per 100,000 population respectively.

The same figures for seniors aged 60 and above are 0.2 and 4.5 respectively.

Currently, 86% of our population has been fully vaccinated and 87% have received at least one dose. 26% have received their booster shots.

Gan Kim Yong: “A Matter of Time” Before Omicron Variant Arrives in Singapore

While there have been no reported cases of the Omicron variant in Singapore so far, co-chair of the COVID-19 task force Gan Kim Yong believes it’s only a “matter of time” before we find one.

This is because more and more countries are reporting cases of people infected with the newly-discovered strain.

To buy time as we find out more about Omicron, the authorities are making several “pre-emptive moves”, including:

• Disallowing those suspected of carrying the Omicron variant from undergoing home recovery – they will be taken to NCID instead
• Conducting full contact tracing for Omicron cases
• Placing close contacts on a 10-day quarantine at designated facilities

Mr Gan explained that these measures will allow the authorities to detect Omicron cases quickly, so they can be contained earlier.

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