Omicron shadow looms over oil, gas pricesĬommon symptoms reported include sore throat, tiredness and cough, the ministry added.Īs for reports that there were more Omicron-related hospitalisations among younger people in South Africa, the ministry said this could be due to an overall high infection rate among the population.Īnother factor could be that existing patients hospitalised for non-covid-19 related reasons could have tested positive for the variant while in hospital. Common Omicron symptomsĪddressing concerns regarding the severity of the strain of the virus, the MOH said Omicron cases have “mostly displayed mild symptoms, and no Omicron-related deaths have been reported so far”. The ministry urged those eligible to get themselves vaccinated or go for their booster jabs, saying there is strong scientific consensus that doing so will protect against any existing and future variants of Covid-19. Studies on whether existing Covid-19 vaccines are effective against the new variant are ongoing, but “there is an emerging view amongst scientists around the world that existing Covid-19 vaccines will still work on the Omicron variant, especially in protecting people against severe illness,” the MOH said. With the new variant spreading globally, Singapore “must expect to detect more cases at our borders and, in time to come, also within our community”, MOH cautioned. The ministry said it has, over the past several days, reviewed reports from South Africa and other countries, and actively engaged experts in affected countries to obtain first-hand information. On Sunday, Singapore also reported 552 new Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths linked to the coronavirus. The 37-year old vaccinated permanent resident was on the same flight as two other ‘preliminary positive’ cases that landed here from South Africa on December 1. Meanwhile, the city-state reported one more ‘preliminarily positive’ Omicron case on Sunday.

Omicron variant: Delhi's first case was double-vaccinated, showed no fever “This means that there is a higher likelihood of individuals who have recovered from Covid-19 to be reinfected with the Omicron variant,” Channel News Asia quoted the ministry as saying on Sunday in an update on the Omicron variant. Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) has said that early clinical observations globally suggest that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 may be more transmissible and have a higher risk of reinfection compared to the Delta and Beta variants of the virus.

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