You might have noticed how incredibly connected the 47 cases of coronavirus in Singapore have been so far.

Even cases that are considered only tangentially related will more than likely show some connections the further along they go.

One of the best examples is the connection made between Cases 31 and 33 with the much earlier Cases 8 and 9.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) provided the data points that eventually led to the connection being formed.

So how are these links established?

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministries of Home Affairs and Health Amrin Amin shed some light on the hectic schedule for MOH during the outbreak.

According to Amrin, there are seven teams drawn from various MOH departments, working from 8.30am to 10pm in two shifts for seven days a week.

These teams have to identify all contacts suspected cases might have been in close contact with.

Then depending on whether they are showing symptoms, they will either be quarantined, or hospitalised.

According to a Straits Times article delving into the art of contact tracing, this means a highly detailed activity map that traces everything the patient has done, and the people he's been with over the past two weeks.

Which is, needless to say, an insane amount of work.

Pream Raj, an assistant director of the Communicable Diseases Division of the MOH, says that this mapping consists of minute by minute activities, "with no gaps".

That thoroughness is essential in being able to spot clusters and contain transmission, while ring-fencing the cases.

Image from Amrin Amin's Facebook page