SINGAPORE: A 30-year-old male Malaysian, who is also a Singapore permanent resident, was among the 16 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection reported here on Thursday.

He is a doctor at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and is among the eight more cases linked to Case 62541, a nurse confirmed positive of infection on April 27.

Labelled as Case 62557, the man received his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Jan 18, and the second dose on Feb 8, said the republic's Ministry of Health (MOH) in its full data released late last night.

MOH said there are nine cases in total linked to TTSH so far, of these, three are TTSH staff, and six are patients who were warded in one of the wards.

"Epidemiological investigations and contact tracing are ongoing. In the meantime, we have put in place precautionary measures to ringfence the cases," said the ministry.

The ministry said two wards at TTSH have been locked down while no visitors will be allowed into the hospital except for critically ill patients from Thursday.

As at 12 noon Thursday, 35 new cases were reported in Singapore, bringing the total tally to 61,121.

The 16 new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection on Thursday was reportedly the highest number of community cases since July last year.

So far, there are eight COVID-19 clusters in the republic.

-- BERNAMA