No truth in claims of new COVID-19 variant in country: Singapore’s Ministry of Health

Singapore: Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday said that there is no truth in the references in reports in a section of Indian media about the presence of a new variant of coronavirus in the country, adding that there is no “Singapore variant”.

It said that the strain that is prevalent in many of the COVID-19 cases in recent weeks is the B.1.617.2 variant, which originated in India.

A statement by Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) referred to media reports in a section of media citing remarks of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“There is no truth whatsoever in the assertions found within the reports. There is no “Singapore variant”. The strain that is prevalent in many of the COVID-19 cases in recent weeks is the B.1.617.2 variant, which originated in India. Phylogenetic testing has shown this B.1.617.2 variant to be associated with several clusters in Singapore,” the statement said.

Kejriwal had requested the Centre to immediately suspend flights from Singapore because of an alleged new strain, which is suspected to affect children. He contended that the alleged new strain in Singapore could lead to the third wave of infections in India.

In a tweet today, Kejriwal said, “The new COVID variant in Singapore is being said to be extremely dangerous for children, in India it may come as a third wave. My appeal to the central government:

1. Air services with Singapore to be cancelled with immediate effect

2. Priority on vaccine options should be worked out for children too.”

Earlier, the Principal Scientific Advisor to Centre K Vijay Raghavan had on May 5 said the “third phase” of the COVID-19 is inevitable.

“A phase three is inevitable, given the higher levels of circulating virus but it is not clear on what time scale this phase three will occur. We should prepare for new waves,” the Principal

Scientific Advisor had said.