SINGAPORE – Singapore authorities confirmed the first case of the mutated variant of the coronavirus found in the UK. Eleven others already in quarantine had returned preliminarily positive results for the new strain.
All the cases were imported from overseas and they had been placed in two-week quarantine or isolated upon arrival. Their close contacts too had been quarantined earlier.
“There is currently no evidence that the B117 strain is circulating in the community,” the health ministry said late on Wednesday.
The country has been conducting viral genomic sequencing for confirmed cases who returned from Europe recently.
The new strain was detected among 31 cases from Europe, who arrived in the country between Nov. 17 and Dec. 17.
The patient having the mutated strain of the virus arrived in the country from the UK on Dec. 6 and was quarantined upon arrival. She tested positive on December 8 and all her contacts too had been placed on quarantine. They tested negative at the end of the period.
