More People in S’pore Might Need to Take COVID-19 Vaccine After New Strain Found

By
Boon Hun
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You’ve probably heard all about the new Covid-19 variant in the UK, and how it’s alarming the entire world.

In fact, if you’ve been on social media recently, you might’ve heard about the one confirmed case which contracted the UK’s mutated Covid-19, and 11 other suspected cases.

As UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, when the situation changes, defence plans have to change accordingly.

And this holds true, even in Singapore.

More People in S’pore Might Need to Take COVID-19 Vaccine After New Strain Found

A health expert in Singapore says that, with the introduction of a more contagious variant of Covid-19 into Singapore, it’s now important that more people in Singapore get vaccinated.

According to Professor Teo Yik Ying, the dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the NUS, this is the “only way” the Singapore community can be “protected as a whole”.

So instead of the original 80% target, Singapore might be looking at getting 90% of our people on the island vaccinated, or higher.

Previously, the chief health scientist Professor Tan Chorh Chuan from the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that Singapore needed a vaccination rate of 80% in order to achieve herd immunity.

S’pore’s First Covid-19 Case With UK’s Variant

On Wednesday (23 Dec), the Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed the first Covid-19 case carrying the B117 strain in Singapore.

The confirmed case is a 17-year-old female who had been studying in the UK since August.

She returned to Singapore on 6 Dec and served her stay-home notice at a dedicated facility upon arrival.

She developed a fever on 7 Dec and was confirmed to be infected on 8 Dec.

She was included among the 21 imported infections reported yesterday.

All her close contacts had been placed on quarantine and had tested negative for Covid-19 at the end of their quarantine period.

The teenager may not be the only one in Singapore with the new Covid-19 strain, though.

11 Others ‘Preliminarily Positive’

Singapore’s National Public Health Laboratory is performing viral genomic sequencing for confirmed Covid-19 cases who had arrived from Europe recently.

A total of 31 imported cases from Europe who arrived in Singapore between 17 Nov and 17 Dec were confirmed to have the coronavirus this month.

Among them is the 17-year-old student.

Five samples couldn’t be sequenced due to their low viral load, and two cases have not been tested so far.

However, 11 other confirmed cases are “preliminarily positive” for the B117 strain, meaning we could have 12 cases of the B117 strain in the country if these 11 are confirmed to carry the mutated virus.

On the bright side, MOH said there’s “currently no evidence that the B117 strain is circulating in the community”.

Yet Another New Covid-19 Strain Found in UK

While the rest of the world is scrambling to keep the B117 strain out of their countries, yet another mutated coronavirus has been discovered in the UK.

And just like B117, this mutated Covid-19 virus may be more infectious.

The variant was first discovered in South Africa last week, with the government saying it could have triggered a recent spike in infections.

It has since been found in Britain in Covid-19 cases linked to South Africa.

But then again, if we can achieve a 70% participation rate for TraceTogether despite initial misgivings, we might just be able to achieve the targeted vaccination rate as well.

The most important thing now, however, is to make sure that people in Singapore and keep vigilant despite Singapore’s impending entrance into Phase 3.

Featured Image: Ascannio / Shutterstock.com

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Boon Hun
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