A childcare centre employee was among three Singaporeans confirmed to have Covid-19 yesterday.

The 33-year-old woman worked at Iman Childcare (Tampines) and was one of 548 new coronavirus cases reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH), of which 544 were work permit holders residing in dormitories.

Of the new cases yesterday, one was a work permit holder living outside the dorms and three were Singaporeans. All of them tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday.

This brings the total count in Singapore to 31,616.

The childcare centre worker began showing symptoms on Saturday and was picked up as a result of proactive screening of pre-school staff, said MOH.

Of the other two Singaporeans, one is a 55-year-old man who went to work at the SSKBJV Dormitory after the onset of his symptoms on May 17.

The other is a 35-year-old female household contact of a 37-year-old man linked to the CDPL Tuas Dormitory, a cluster that now has 687 confirmed cases.

None of the new cases was imported and 99 per cent were linked to known clusters.

No new cluster was confirmed yesterday.

MOH closed a cluster at Strand Hotel in Bencoolen Street yesterday after no new case linked to the hotel was found for 28 days, or two incubation periods.

The average number of new daily community cases has risen from five the week before to six in the past week. MOH said this is partly due to active surveillance and screening of nursing home residents and pre-school staff, which has picked up more cases in the past week.

The daily averages for unlinked community cases have remained stable at two per day for the last two weeks.

Between May 17 and Saturday, MOH said it has uncovered links for five previously unlinked cases.

Migrant workers living in dorms continue to make up most of the new cases due to extensive testing, said MOH.

To date, about 9 per cent, or 29,363, of the 323,000 migrant workers staying in dormitories have tested positive for Covid-19.

The number of Covid-19 patients discharged daily has exceeded new patients in the past fortnight, with 994 more discharged from hospitals and community facilities yesterday. This means 14,867, or about 47 per cent of the total Covid-19 patients in Singapore, have fully recovered from the disease.

Of the 690 who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving and eight are in critical condition in intensive care. Another 16,027 are isolated at community facilities, for those who have mild symptoms or are clinically well but tested positive for Covid-19.

On Saturday, two of the new cases worked at pre-schools. Pre-school staff are being actively screened for Covid-19 ahead of the centres' reopening, which starts in phases from June 2. About 15,300 - or 99 per cent of those tested - have been found negative for the virus, the Early Childhood Development Agency said on Saturday.

Singapore has seen 23 deaths from complications due to Covid-19, while nine who tested positive died from other causes.