Delhi CM tweets of new viral strain in Singapore; Singapore Embassy clarifies

On Tuesday, Delhi’s Chief Minister tweeted about a new found COVID viral strain in Singapore warning that it is extremely dangerous for children more now and might possibly return to India as the third wave. He also appealed to the central government to 1) To cancel Air services with Singapore and 2) To consider rolling out vaccination programs for children as well, he tweeted.

As Kejriwal made this tweet on Tuesday on an alleged new Singapore variant, Singapore Embassy tweeted back saying that there is now new strain of virus identified in Singapore yet. And, in Phylogenetic testing it was revealed that the B.1.617 Indian variant is the most dominant strain identified in most of the cases around the world and in Singapore.

As the second wave of the pandemic is yet to slow down, scientific experts to the government and other institutions around the country have already warned government as well as public to expect a third wave of the pandemic as well followed by the second wave immediately.

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Experts cautioned that children might be the next most vulnerable group in the upcoming waves of infection, while elderly were vulnerable in the first wave last year and the youth vulnerable in this year’s second wave.

Singapore has been one of the most successful nations in the world to have contained the infections in their country. However, on Sunday, the Singapore government has decided to shut down all schools over concerns of the mutated B.1.617 Indian variant said to target children more.

The country recorded 38 new cases this year, which is the highest till now in Singapore, 17 of which were identified to be communally transmitted upon contact tracing. The transmission of the remaining 17 is yet unclear. The country recorded at most 61,000 cases till date most of them in foreign dormitories and the new cases are first ones to be identified outside such foreign dormitories.

Education Minister Chan Chun Sing told that a mutated strain of B.1.617 variant “appears to affect children more, some of these mutations are much more virulent and they seem to attack the younger children” to AFP.