In a statement, Singapore’s health ministry said there were 32,035 new infections recorded from Nov 26 to Dec 2, which The Straits Times said is the highest number of weekly infections in 2023.

The Singapore daily said the previous high for this year was the 28,410 infections recorded from March 26 to April 1.

It said the latest number is almost 10,000 more than the 22,094 diagnosed the previous week, adding that the number of weekly infections has been hovering around 15,000 over the past two to three months.

The health ministry noted that average daily Covid-19 hospitalisations in Singapore rose to 225 from 136 the week before, with the average daily intensive care unit cases increasing to four cases compared to one case in the previous week.

“This has added workload to our hospitals, which are already busy,” it said in the statement.

“The increase in cases could be due to a number of factors, including waning population immunity and increased travel and community interactions during the year-end travel and festive season.”

The ministry also noted that there is no indication that the variants circulating in Singapore are more transmissible or cause more severe disease.

In Malaysia, the number of new Covid-19 cases nationwide increased by 57.3% to 3,626 last week from 2,305 recorded the week before.

In a statement yesterday, health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said the increase in Covid-19 cases is in line with the global trend at the end of every year.