Despite High Number of Omicron Cases, Daily COVID-19 Deaths Are Lower Than Delta Peak

2022-02-15 , 1:16 pm

The festive Chinese New Year period saw an expected rise in the number of Omicron cases, with 13,208 new infections on 4 February.

But fret not, because Health Minister Ong Ye Kung has some positive news to share about the situation.

Fall in Daily COVID-19 Deaths

Despite the spike in new cases, the number of deaths caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19 averaged two to three a day in the past two weeks.

This was a significant decrease from the 13 deaths a day caused by the Delta variant at its peak, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung in a written parliamentary reply yesterday.

“We will continue to monitor the key indicators closely to make sure our healthcare system can cope as we ride through the Omicron transmission wave. Once it has peaked and starts to subside, we can look forward to easing our safe management measures,” he said.

Key Indicator #1: Number of Deaths

While we are all eager to meet up in groups of more than five, don’t be too kan cheong yet. The timeline all depends on the epidemic situation.

The number of deaths is also one of the key indicators to tell if Singapore’s healthcare system is able to cope with the Omicron wave, Mr Ong added.

Last October to early November saw the peak of the Delta wave where the daily death count was 13.

However, in the past two weeks, this number has fallen to two to three.

Don’t rejoice too soon though.

Mr Ong continued, “There had been days when deaths were also more than five. We have to watch the trend very closely, but for now, the case mortality due to the Omicron variant is not very different from the number of deaths related to various viral infections pre-Covid-19.”

Key Indicator #2: Number of ICU Cases

Another key indicator is the number of cases in intensive care units (ICUs).

The good news?

Current figures show that the intensive care wards are not “coming under pressure and are in good shape”.

There are around 30 patients in ICUs across hospitals, compared with 170 patients at the peak of the Delta wave, said Mr Ong. This makes up 0.05 per cent of COVID-19 cases that require intensive care currently.

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Omicron patients also stay in the ICU for a shorter period of three to five days, compared with the average 11 days’ stay by Delta patients.

At the moment, there are 113 ICU beds, which can be ramped up to 350 at short notice and to 500 beds should the need arise.

Currently, around 130 patients require oxygen supplementation, which is around 40 per cent of the peak of the Delta wave, Mr Ong said.

Hospital Bed Constraints

The biggest constraint is the number of hospital beds, as there are around 1,200 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalised, said Mr Ong.

Of these, around 30 per cent are “incidental cases”, which basically means they were admitted for non-COVID-19 conditions but later found to be infected.

Patients infected with the Omicron variant also have a shorter hospital stay of about three to four days, compared with five to eight days for those infected with the Delta variant, so beds are freed up faster, he added.

Healthcare Manpower

On top of the two key indicators mentioned earlier, it is also important to monitor the state of healthcare manpower, noted Mr Ong.

The attrition rate of doctors from public acute hospitals has remained comparable with the rate in 2019, at around 3 per cent to 5 per cent, while nurses’ attrition rate was about 8 per cent in 2020 and 2021, comparable with that in 2019.

Attrition rate refers to the departure of staff from the organisation (in this case healthcare workers).

“We do not take this for granted and will continue to support our healthcare professionals. We are also working closely with clusters to help them recruit new healthcare workers,” said Mr Ong.

So you’ve heard it from the health minister, don’t be alarmed by the numbers. We might be returning to our normal lives very soon.