Is Singapore Covid Variant Affecting Children? Read to know more about it.
Byline By- Vinayak Heliwal
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday warned the Centre Government of a new variant of Coronavirus disease found in Singapore and said that it has the potential to trigger the third wave in India.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also demanded from the centre that the flights to and from Singapore must be banned because of a new strain.
Delhi CM said that the virus is extremely dangerous for children and asked PM Narendra Modi led government to immediately prioritize vaccination drive for children.
“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 are air services with Singapore to be canceled with immediate effect and prioritize the options for vaccinating children at the earliest,” the Delhi chief minister tweeted.
The warning comes as the national capital has started showing signs of gradual recovery. The number of daily cases has come down from the highest seen last month at more than 28,000 to less than 5,000 recorded on Tuesday
However, by evening Singapore’s health ministry responded with a sharp rebuttal that stressed that no new Coronavirus strain had been detected in the city-state.
“There is no truth whatsoever in the assertions found within the reports. There is no “Singapore variant”. The 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. Phylogenetic testing has shown this B.1.617.2 variant to be associated with several clusters in Singapore,” its health ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile Singapore government on Sunday had also said that the new mutations of Covid-19 particularly the B.1.167variant are affecting children, and will shut down all schools as it prepares to vaccinate youngsters.
Singapore’s education minister Chan Chun said that “mutations are much more virulent, and they seem to attack the younger children”. The education minister added that the government is working on a plan to vaccinate all the students under the age of 16 in the country.
Although there is no official confirmation at this stage on how many children have been affected by the new variant of Covid in Singapore.
For unversed Singapore is one of the successful countries which has taken immediate and strict measures to contain Covid-19 and are rapidly imposing aggressive restrictions at home and tightening travel between each other.
As Singapore draws up plans to vaccinate its young, reports state that the children who have contracted the virus so far are not seriously ill and a few of them have mild symptoms of Coronavirus.