Update: India joins dog pile on Delhi official over 鈥楽ingapore variant鈥 claim
Singapore鈥檚 Ministry of Health has rejected warnings in India鈥檚 media that a Singaporean variant of the coronavirus could lead to a third wave of infections there.聽
Singapore鈥檚 Health Ministry said yesterday that the reports, which cited Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal describing a mutation linked to Singapore, were outright false. The statements were published in Indian news outlets Hindustan Times and NDTV, which have millions of followers on social media.聽
鈥淭here is no truth whatsoever in the assertions found within the reports. There is no 鈥楽ingapore variant,鈥欌 the ministry said in . 鈥淭he strain that is prevalent in many of the COVID-19 cases in recent weeks is the B.1.617.2 variant, which originated in India.鈥
The variant, said to be more infectious, has been linked to several outbreaks in Singapore, including those at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Changi Airport.聽
The and articles were based on a tweet in Hindi by Kejriwal which urged the country to end air travel with Singapore, where he said the coronavirus was 鈥渆xtremely dangerous for children鈥 and 鈥渕ay come as a third wave鈥 to India.聽
“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,鈥 read the tweet鈥檚 translation to English in the Times. 鈥淢y appeal to the central government are air services with Singapore to be cancelled with immediate effect and prioritise the options for vaccinating children at the earliest.鈥
Both articles had been updated to include rebuttals by Singapore鈥檚 diplomatic mission there.
Singapore has barred entry for long-term pass holders and short-term visitors who recently traveled to India.
Singapore continues to report double-digit infections with 27 locally transmitted infections recorded yesterday. In total, there have been 61,651 cases and 31 deaths since the outbreak began. India recorded more than 29 million cases with close to 280,000 deaths.
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