SINGAPORE, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 5,500 dengue cases have been reported in Singapore so far this year, exceeding the total number of cases for the whole of last year, said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu on Sunday.
"This is a worrying trend as we are only in April, and we expect a surge in the number of dengue cases in the coming months," the minister said at the Keep Clean, Singapore! 2022 launch event. "We must take urgent collective action, and do our part to ensure good housekeeping, to prevent mosquito breeding."
She added that dengue is a serious health threat and called on Singaporeans to stay on guard against dengue even as they see improvements in the COVID-19 situation.
Statistics from the National Environment Agency (NEA) show that Singapore's cumulative number of dengue cases for 2022 had reached 5,459 by Friday. Last year, Singapore recorded 5,258 dengue cases in total.
NEA said previously that the surge in dengue cases this year is caused by three key factors, which are the high Aedes aegypti mosquito population, the primary dengue vector, detected in the community, previously uncommon dengue virus serotype 3 (DENV-3) circulating, and a sizeable proportion of people still staying in and working from home.
In March 2022, the Aedes aegypti mosquito population was high in some areas of Singapore, and was about 48 percent higher than in the same period last year. ■