SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 233 new cases of Covid-19 infection in Singapore as of 12pm on Sunday (April 12), the second time in a week that the 200 mark was crossed.

In a news release, MOH said out of the 233 new cases, 51 are linked to known clusters and 15 are linked to other cases. The total number of cases now stands at 2,532.

Thirty additional cases were found to be linked to the S11 Dormitory, which now has a total of 365 confirmed cases.

Seven new clusters have emerged. These are located at Acacia Lodge at Bukit Batok Street 23, Tuas View Dormitory at Tuas South Avenue 1, Woodlands Industrial Park E1, 85 Kallang Dormitory at Kallang Avenue, Black Tap at Bayfront Avenue, a Kenyon/UBS construction site at Penang Road and McDonald’s, including three outlets at Forum, Lido and Parklane.

A total of 167 cases are pending contact tracing. Of these, 16 are Singapore citizens or permanent residents, 10 are work pass or long-term pass holders and 141 are work permit holders mostly residing in dormitories, work sites or other living quarters.

No new imported cases were reported, while 32 patients were discharged on Sunday.

Sunday's figure was the second highest single-day spike after the 287 reported on Thursday.

MOH noted that the number of imported cases rose around mid-March due to the large number of returnees, but has since come down to zero.

"The number of cases in the community increased following the wave of new imported cases, but there has been some moderation in recent days, in light of the safe-distancing measures that have been put in place earlier," MOH said.

"The number of work permit and dormitory-related cases has also increased sharply, and this is likely to continue going up, especially as we undertake more aggressive testing at the dormitories," the ministry added.

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said in a Facebook post that the authorities' strategy to take care of foreign workers and contain the virus in the dorms will "take some time, but we are going all out to tackle this".

"At the same time, we have safe distancing measures and the circuit breaker in place to slow down the spread of the virus in our community. We will only see the full effects of the circuit breaker in the next 1-2 weeks," he wrote.

Contact tracing and investigation are underway for currently unlinked cases to establish links to known clusters or previous cases. MOH uncovered links for 229 previously unlinked cases in the past week from April 5 to 11.

A total of 560 patients have fully recovered and been discharged from hospital or community isolation facilities. Of the 976 who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving. A total of 31 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 988 patients who are clinically well but still test positive for Covid-19 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Eight patients have died from complications due to Covid-19 infection.

As of April 12, 12pm, MOH has identified 28,140 close contacts who have been quarantined. Of these, 12,088 are currently quarantined, and 16,052 have completed their quarantine.