SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (April 17) announced 623 new cases of Covid-19.

This takes the total number of infections in Singapore to 5,050.

Work permit holders living in foreign worker dormitories formed the majority of new cases. 

MOH noted that it has been 11 days since circuit breaker restrictions to slow the spread of the disease were rolled out. 

Outside of the foreign worker dormitories, the ministry said the number of new cases in the community has dipped from an average of 40 a day the week before to an average of 32 daily in the past week.

It added that while the circuit breaker measures appear to have helped, “we still have to monitor carefully the numbers over the next few days”.

“We are particularly concerned that it is increasingly difficult to link the new cases and identify the source of infection. In fact, the number of unlinked cases in the community has increased slightly, from an average of 19 cases per day in the week before to an average of 22 per day in the past week,” MOH said.

It added: “We have an ongoing surveillance programme, where a small sample of patients at our primary care facilities are tested for Covid-19 infections. We have picked up some cases through these tests, which is an indication of undetected cases in the community.”