Singapore is diversifying its sources of Covid-19 testing resources even as it increases the rate of testing here, said the Ministry of Health's director of medical services Kenneth Mak yesterday.

Currently, about 3,000 foreign workers in dormitories here are tested for the disease daily, but the authorities say they intend to increase that number in the coming weeks as part of efforts to ensure workers are infection-free before resuming work.

Associate Professor Mak told reporters during a virtual press conference that the Republic's efforts to intensify testing come at a time when many other countries around the world are doing the same.

He said: "There are many countries who are... also ramping up their test capacity at the same time as we are.

"And we all have a common interest of wanting to test more people within our own communities, and therefore there will inevitably be some competition for resources.

"This is the reason that we want to diversify where we will procure our various test kits and test resources."

He added that Singapore gets its test kits from three main sources - local companies that can produce such kits, research partners such as the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, and other parts of the world such as China and South Korea.

In addition to diversifying its sources, Singapore has also attempted to reduce its dependency on various steps within the test stream, as each step requires reagents, which may sometimes be in short supply.

One way of doing this is by using tests that circumvent the need for certain reagents, said Prof Mak, as this helps to avoid some of the constraints associated with competition and limited supply.

He said: "These are some of the strategies we have to make sure that we have sufficient test capacity, not only for our current needs, but (by) continuing to expand the capacity for future needs as well."