Concern in Singapore about rise in unlinked Covid cases

Concerns are rising over an increase in number of unrelated Covid-19 cases in Singapore, which has been reintroducing restrictions in a bid to curb the spike of infections in the city-state.

According to The Straits Times, Singapore had reported a total of 68 unlinked cases from the start of the year, compared with 75 from May 7 to yesterday.

The average daily number of unrelated cases is also on the rise, with 4.15 cases per day from May 1 until yesterday compared to 0.58 in January and 0.46 in February.

Singapore experienced a surge in cases last year when the Covid-19 virus spread through crowded dormitories housing foreign workers, infecting tens of thousands.

About 61,700 cases have been recorded in the city-state so far and 31 deaths.

On May 17, authorities announced that schools would close amid warnings of new strains like the variant detected in India which appeared to be affecting more children.

The government has also limited public gatherings to two, banned restaurant dine-ins and closed gyms, measures that will remain in place until June 13.

Singapore Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said he was confident the steps taken would help bring the numbers down.

“But we will only see this materialising one to two weeks later because of the time lag in these measures,” he was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.

According to the report, the average daily number of unrelated cases from March 4 to April 3 last year, when Singapore announced its circuit breaker, was 6.42.

The average daily number of unrelated cases from April 20 to May 20 this year was three.