Eight more coronavirus cases here were announced yesterday - the largest increase since the outbreak began.

All are linked to previous cases.

A day after being identified as a cluster, the Grace Assembly of God church has become the second largest one here. Five more cases are now linked to it, bringing the total to seven.

The seven include the church's senior pastor Wilson Teo and a professor from the National University of Singapore's School of Design and Environment.

Another two new cases are Bangladeshi work pass holders, aged 30 and 37, who are linked to a worksite in Seletar Aerospace Heights where two other confirmed cases were identified earlier.

The last new case is a 30-year-old Singapore man who is a family member of the 62-year-old DBS Bank employee who was confirmed to have the virus on Wednesday.

None of the new cases has recent travel history to China. They are all currently warded in isolation rooms at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

The eight new cases bring the total to 58, with at least five clusters.

Apart from the seven linked to Grace Assembly of God church, three Singaporeans are linked to the Life Church and Missions Singapore; nine cases are linked to the Yong Thai Hang medicine shop; three cases are linked to a business meeting at the Grand Hyatt; and four to a Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site.

Contact tracing is still taking place for seven locally transmitted cases with no travel history to China and no known connections to existing cases.

MOH said Singapore will conti-nue to rely on laboratory tests to confirm infection cases, even as China introduced new diagnostic guidelines allowing doctors to assess patients clinically to diagnose cases.