The government “is closely tracking the trajectory of this wave,” the ministry of health said in a statement on Saturday. It said the estimated number of Covid-19 cases nearly doubled to 25,900 in the week of May 5 to 11, compared with 13,700 in the prior period.

Average daily Covid-19 hospitalisations rose to about 250 from 181 over the same period, the ministry said. It asked public hospitals to reduce their non-urgent elective surgery cases and move suitable patients to care facilities to protect hospital bed capacity.

“We are at the beginning part of the wave where it is steadily rising,” health minister Ong Ye Kung said, according to a Straits Times report.

“The wave should peak in the next two to four weeks, which means between mid and end of June,” Ong added.