The coronavirus has claimed 878 lives in Singapore so far this year, more than the 828 deaths in the first two years of the pandemic combined, even as a semblance of normalcy returned to life in the Republic with the easing of pandemic restrictions.

Singapore has logged 1.89 million cases so far in 2022 alone – an increase of more than six-fold from the 279,405 infections seen at the end of 2021, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University based on Ministry of Health (MOH) figures - which experts say is reason enough to remind people not to be complacent.