The republic’s health ministry said it had been closely tracking the trajectory of this wave and had taken steps to ensure that Singapore’s healthcare capacity remains protected.
“In Singapore, XBB is now the predominant subvariant circulating in the community, accounting for 54% of local cases during the week of Oct 3 to 9, up from 22% the previous week,” it said in a statement here.
The ministry said the previously dominant subvariant, BA.5, is now estimated to account for 21% of local cases, while the subvariant BA.2.75 is estimated to account for 24% of cases.
The ministry noted that there was evidence that XBB may be driving an increase in reinfections.
“The proportion of reinfections among total Covid-19 cases in Singapore has been increasing over the past month, with reinfections currently making up about 17% of total new cases,” it said.
Given that immunity from natural infection in the population is likely waning over time, “this underscores the importance of ensuring minimum protection through vaccination and keeping them up to date to protect us against severe infections”, it added.
The ministry said the increase in hospitalised cases in the republic also remained proportionate to the increase in overall cases.
“More importantly, the number of severe cases has remained low,” it said.
As of yesterday, the ministry said the number of cases hospitalised, requiring oxygen supplementation and in the intensive care unit (ICU), was at 562, 44 and nine respectively, compared with 365, 37 and 13 a week ago.
Based on current information, it expected “the XBB infection wave will peak by around mid-November 2022”.
“Using the BA.5 wave as an indication, hospitalised cases then peaked at 800 in July 2022. Our hospitals, while stretched, were able to cope with the numbers,” the ministry said.
It said that the Omicron XBB subvariant was first detected in August 2022 in India and has since been detected in more than 17 countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, India, Japan and the United States.
“While observations from countries where XBB has been reported suggest that it is at least as transmissible as currently circulating variants, there is no evidence that XBB causes more severe illness,” it said.