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Here a case of a new strain of coronavirus reported in the UK as potentially more contagious was detected, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
The patient is a 17-year-old Singaporean girl who had studied in the UK.
The Health Ministry said that with the B117 strain circulating in the UK, the National Public Health Laboratory was conducting viral genomic sequencing for confirmed Covid-19 cases that recently arrived from Europe.
A total of 31 imported cases from Europe, arriving in Singapore between November 17 and December 17, were confirmed to have the Covid-19 infection this month.
Among them, 12 were not infected with the B117 strain and one patient, identified as Case 58,504, was found to carry the strain.
Five samples cannot be sequenced due to their low viral load, the Health Ministry said, adding that confirmation of the results of 11 other cases that were preliminarily positive for the B117 strain was pending.
The last two cases have yet to be proven.
The Health Ministry said there is currently no evidence that the B117 strain is circulating in the community.
“All cases had been placed on 14-day stay-at-home notices in dedicated or isolated facilities upon arrival in Singapore, and their close contacts had been quarantined before,” he added.
The 17-year-old who was infected with the B117 strain had been studying in the UK since August this year.
He returned to Singapore on December 6 and delivered a stay-at-home notice in a dedicated facility upon arrival.
She developed a fever the next day and was confirmed to have a Covid-19 infection on December 8.
His case was included in the ministry’s case count the same day.
All of his close contacts had been quarantined and tested negative at the end of their quarantine period, the ministry added.
“As she had been isolated upon arrival in Singapore, we were able to surround this case so that there would be no further transmission of her,” said the Ministry of Health.
As a precautionary measure to reduce the risk of the B117 strain spreading to Singapore, the multi-ministerial task force combating Covid-19 announced on Tuesday that as of 11:59 pm on Wednesday, all holders of passes to Long-term and short-term visitors with recent travel history to the UK in the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter or transit through Singapore.
On Tuesday, Education Minister Lawrence Wong, who is co-chairing the multi-ministry working group, said after the announcement of the new travel restrictions: “The preliminary assessment is that (the new strain) is 70% more infectious, which is significant, and therefore we believe it is prudent to detain all travelers arriving from the UK during this period until we can learn more about this new strain of the virus. ” – The Straits Times / ANN
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