In order to check novel coronavirus surge in the country, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged the Indian government to cancel air services with Singapore over concerns of a new Covid-19 strain that is said to be affecting children.
Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal said, "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."
He also urged the Centre to not only cancel the flights from Singapore with immediate effect, but also appealed Centre to work out vaccine options for children on priority basis.
Recently, Singapore announced that it will close schools from Wednesday as authorities warned new coronavirus strains like the one first detected in India were affecting more children in the city-state.
The government has been tightening restrictions following a recent rise in local transmissions after months of near-zero cases.
At a virtual news conference late Sunday, authorities announced that primary and secondary schools as well as junior colleges would shift to full home-based learning from Wednesday until the end of the school term on May 28.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, citing a conversation he had with the ministry's director of medical services Kenneth Mak, told a news conference Sunday that the B.1.617 strain "appears to affect children more".
The strain was first detected in India.
"Some of these mutations are much more virulent and they seem to attack the younger children," Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said at the news conference.
"This is an area of concern for all of us," he said, adding however that none of the children who had been infected were seriously ill.
The government is "working out the plans" to vaccinate students under the age of 16, Chan said in a Facebook post.
Singapore has limited public gatherings to two, banned restaurant dine-ins and closed gyms in an attempt to stop the surge in infections.
Authorities have also banned non-passengers from entering the airport terminal and closed an adjacent mall as around 9,000 workers undergo testing.
Meanwhile, back in India, the country COVID-19 death toll climbed to 2,78,719 with a record 4,329 fresh fatalities, while the single-day rise in coronavirus cases stood at 2.63 lakh, the lowest in 28 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.
The country reported a total of 2,63,533 new cases in a span of 24 hours, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,52,28,996, the data updated at 8 am showed.
A total of 2,59,170 cases were reported in a span of 24 hours on April 20.
The active cases further reduced to 33,53,765 comprising 13.29 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 85.60 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
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