Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday rebutted claims of a “Singapore variant” of the coronavirus, saying there is “no truth whatsoever” in the assertions found within the reports.
The reports referred to by MOH are Hindustan Times (“Coronavirus variant found in Singapore can be India’s 3rd wave, extremely dangerous for kids, warns Arvind Kejriwal”) and NDTV (“Stop Singapore Flights: Arvind Kejriwal To Centre Over New Covid Strain”), both published on Tuesday.
“There is no truth whatsoever in the assertions found within the reports. There is no ‘Singapore variant’,” MOH said in a statement issued late on Tuesday.
“The strain that is prevalent in many of the Covid-19 cases in recent weeks is the B16172 variant, which originated in India. Phylogenetic testing has shown this B16172 variant to be associated with several clusters in Singapore,” the statement read.
There is no truth in the assertion that there is a new COVID strain in Singapore. Phylogenetic…