By Alec Go
The Department of Health (DOH) reported that 81 cases of the Omicron XBB subvariant and 193 XBC subvariant cases were detected in the country.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, Oct. 18, the DOH said the XBB cases were present in two regions and the XBC cases were detected in 11 regions.
Of the 81 XBB cases, 70 have already recovered, eight are still under isolation. The status of the three other cases have yet to be verified.
The DOH said that there are so far no casualties for XBB, a variant that has been causing new COVID-19 case spikes in Singapore.
It also cited the Singapore Ministry of Health’s statement on the insufficiency of evidence that XBB can cause a more severe form of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, 176 of the 193 cases of the XBC variant have recovered and five succumbed to the disease.
The DOH said the variant, which said to be a recombinant of Delta and BA.2 variants, is currently under monitoring. – gb
