About three days ago, we got to know that there were at least four COVID-19 cases in Singapore who were tested positive for the new UK coronavirus strain, the B117 variant.
It’s more contagious and the UK PM has said that it could be deadlier.
It turned out that there are at least 25 cases in Singapore that are infected with this strain, and five of them are from the community.
There Are Now 25 COVID-19 Cases in S’pore With B117 Variant & 5 Are Community Cases
MOH said yesterday (29 January) that 25 COVID-19 cases in Singapore have been detected with the B117 variant.
The reason why it takes longer to detect the strain is that they need to perform viral genomic sequencing, and in Singapore, the National Public Health Laboratory performs viral genomic sequencing for all confirmed cases.
20 of the cases are imported cases, and 5 are in the community.
For the 5 community cases, 3 of them are linked to a cluster in Crowne Plaza Changi Airport (let’s call them Cluster A), while 2 of them are linked to each other as they’re a married couple (let’s call them Cluster B).
So, are Cluster A and Cluster B linked?
MOH is still investigating, but so far, Cluster B did visit Jewel Changi Airport, and someone from Cluster A was in Changi Airport Terminal 3 during their visit.
In the meantime, all close contacts of the cases, including those who have tested preliminarily positive for the variant, have been isolated and placed on quarantine.
MOH said they’ll “detect and ringfence cases as early as possible when there are cases which test preliminarily positive for the B117 variant.”
They added, “No new cases have emerged from the community cases so far, and we hope that our efforts have ringfenced the cases and prevented further transmission.”
South Africa Strain
Lest you’re not aware, there’s another strain that’s also more contagious.
What’s worse is that this strain might affect the effectiveness of current COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
Commonly known as the South Africa strain, the official name of this strain is the 501Y.V2 strain.
MOH says that currently, there have been no cases of 501Y.V2 in Singapore so far.
Featured Image: kandl stock / Shutterstock.com
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