MFA Officials Met With High Commissioner of India to Express Concerns About Claims of “S’pore COVID-19 Variant”

By
Sarah
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COVID-19 variants are pretty worrying. They increase the transmissibility of the virus while also lowering the efficacy of current vaccines.

That’s why announcements of new strains and mutations should be taken extremely seriously. Die die also cannot anyhow one leh.

But I suppose the memo didn’t reach Delhi’s Chief Minister, Mr Arvind Kejriwal, who warned of a Singapore variant that could result in India’s “third wave”.

On Tuesday (18 May), he took to Twitter and Facebook to post the false information:

“The new form of Corona that came to 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 is for air services with Singapore to be cancelled with immediate effect and to prioritise the options for vaccinating children at the earliest,” he tweeted.

Of course, if there indeed was a Singapore variant, we wouldn’t merely have a Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) to deal with. We’d probably have a full-blown lockdown on our hands.

Also, would the Singapore variant come with extra side effects like kiasu-ism and a bubble tea addiction?

Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) had already issued a swift refusal of Mr Kejriwal’s claims on the very same day.

“There is no truth whatsoever in the assertions found within the reports. There is no ‘Singapore variant’,” a spokesman for MOH said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan repeated MOH’s claims, asserting that “Politicians should stick to facts! There is no ‘Singapore variant’.”

According to TODAYonline, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has also released a statement expressing that it was “disappointed that a prominent political figure had failed to ascertain the facts before making such claims”.

The statement also mentioned that MFA’s officials have met with the High Commissioner of India P Kumaran on Wednesday morning (19 May) to “express these concerns”.

The ministry noted that the strain prevalent in many recent COVID-19 cases in Singapore was the B16172 variant, which was first detected in India.

Others Respond

Mr Balakrishnan also retweeted Mr S Jaishankar’s tweets that confirmed that Mr Kejriwal’s claims were false. Mr Jaishankar is the Minister for External Affairs in India.

He emphasised that “irresponsible comments from those who should know better can damage long-standing partnerships” and that the “Delhi CM does not speak for India.”

Mr Jaishankar also acknowledged Singapore and India’s relationship as “solid partners” and our roles as a logistics hub and oxygen supplier for India.

Mr Balakrishnan had thanked him and reiterated the importance of working together to overcome the pandemic.

“Nobody is safe until everyone is safe,” he tweeted.

To know more about coronavirus mutations, watch this video to the end:

Feature Image: Facebook (High Commission of India in Singapore)

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Sarah
Email: [email protected]