Singapore, Dec 16 (EFE).- Singapore\u2019s health ministry has “strongly” encouraged people to wear masks in crowded places amid rising Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.<\/p>
The number of Covid-19 cases in the island country rose to 56,043 between Dec. 3 to 9 compared to 32,035 cases in the previous week, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>
\u201cTo preserve our healthcare capacity, MOH has been working with public hospitals for contingency planning, including ensuring adequate manpower and deferring of non-urgent electives to maximize bed capacity for urgent cases in need of acute care,\u201d it added.<\/p>
The JN.1 variant, a descendant of the Omicron subvariant BA.2.86, accounts for the \u201cvast majority\u201d of the cases, according to the ministry.<\/p>
The recommendation to use a mask comes almost two years after the Asian city-state, which followed a zero-Covid policy at the beginning, began reopening, completing the process over 2022.<\/p>
Two years after the coronavirus pandemic broke out, Singapore had among the lowest Covid-19 mortality rates in the world, in part due to the partial-closure of its borders and strict surveillance of infections and social distancing measures.<\/p>
It reached the endemic stage of the disease without its healthcare system being overwhelmed.<\/p>
A total of 1,933 people have died from Covid-19 in the country of 5.4 million inhabitants, since the start of the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization’s data.<\/p>
The country has recorded almost 2.8 million cases, with most of the infections initially concentrated in migrant worker dormitories. EFE<\/p>
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