Singapore confirms patient with new COVID-19 strain found in UK

New Delhi, Dec 24: Singapore has confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom, the city-state said, while 11 others who were already in quarantine had returned preliminarily positive results for the new strain.

The 17-year-old, who had been studying in the UK, arrived in Singapore on December 6 and tested positive on December 8. The girl was isolated upon arrival avoiding further transmission arising from her while all her close contacts had been placed on quarantine, and had tested negative at the end of their quarantine period.

"There is currently no evidence that the B117 strain is circulating in the community," Singapore's health ministry said late on Wednesday, referring to the new, potentially more infectious UK strain.

Singapore has been conducting viral genomic sequencing for confirmed COVID-19 cases who arrived from Europe recently.

The strain was found among 31 cases from Europe, who arrived in Singapore between Nov 17 and Dec 17 and were confirmed to have COVID-19 this month.

Singapore has blocked visitors with recent travel history to the United Kingdom to prevent the new strain from spreading in the city-state that has reported almost zero new local infections daily.