Taipei, May 14 (IANS): Taiwan residents were urged on Friday to download a social-distancing app after the island reported 29 locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases, a record increase in single-day infections since the beginning of the pandemic.

Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung, who heads the Central Epidemic Control Centre (CECC), told a news conference on Friday that these new locally transmitted cases include seven with unknown sources of infection, reports dpa news agency.

The remaining ones are linked to known infection clusters in northern Taiwan, he said.

Chen said the government had been working on tracing possible sources of coronavirus infection, encouraging residents to download an app to help contain the virus.

According to the Central Epidemic Control Centre (CECC), the app has been downloaded by about 800,000 mobile users.

Using information-gathering and -sharing, the app will help inform users if they have ever been closer than 2 metres to a Covid-19 patient for more than two minutes in the past 14 days.

On Friday, Taiwan also reported five imported coronavirus cases.

As of Friday, Taiwan, with a population of 23.6 million, has only reported 1,290 cases of the coronavirus, including 164 which were locally transmitted.

There have been 12 deaths since the pandemic began.

Currently, 171 Covid-19 patients are receiving treatment in hospital.