Update on Apr. 21, 11:25am: McDonald's has responded with the case details, as well as the affected outlets: 

If you're left with a void after the sudden closure of McDonald's, here's the reason behind it.

The Director of Medical Services at the Ministry of Health (MOH) had directed the fast food chain to suspend operations to prevent a possible outbreak of Covid-19.

As of 12pm on Apr. 18, seven McDonald’s employees have been confirmed with the Covid-19 infection, MOH said in a statement to Mothership.

These seven employees had worked in nine different outlets.

Cluster surfaced on Apr. 12

The fast food chain had initially removed the walk-in takeaway option from Apr. 18, and subsequently closed all outlets on Apr. 19.

The closure will last until May 4.

A cluster was uncovered at McDonald's on Apr. 12, involving five employees at three outlets: McDonald’s LIDO, Forum Galleria, Parklane and Geylang East Central.

On Apr. 16, MOH announced one additional case linked to the cluster.

The following day on Apr. 17, another case was added to the cluster, making it a total of seven cases.

The cases are 1973, 2066, 2096, 2302, 2084, 3217 and 4579.

In a press release on Apr. 14, MOH announced enhanced measures for workplaces that remain open during the circuit breaker period, which will last from Apr. 7 to May 4.

The ministry stated that cross-deployment of workers across different branches will be disallowed.

Here is the relevant paragraph:

For workplace premises which remain open, cross-deployment or movement of workers across different workplace premises (e.g. different branches) will be disallowed. Employers and on-site managers must ensure that this is complied with, to avoid transmissions across workplace premises.

There should also be no physical interactions between teams working in different locations. For essential service providers who need to move between different locations to perform their services (e.g. IT support, maintenance, logistics, community nurses making house visits), safe distancing measures must be complied to."

Mothership has reached out to McDonald's and will update this article when they reply.

Top image via Babu Hilary on Google Maps