The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that there were another 12 new cases of locally transmitted Zika virus infection confirmed as of 12 pm on Friday (9 September), bringing the total number to 304 cases.
Among these new cases, 10 of them are linked to the Aljunied Crescent/ Sims Drive/ Kallang Way/ Paya Lebar Way cluster and one case is linked to the Elite Terrace cluster. While the other case has no known links to any existing cluster.
Earlier on last Saturday. MOH announced that the National Public Health Laboratory and A*STAR’s Bioinformatics Institute has completed the sequencing analysis of the Zika virus found in two patients from the Aljunied Crescent/ Sims Drive cluster. The analysis found that the virus belongs to the Asian lineage and likely evolved from the strain that was already circulating in Southeast Asia. MOH states that the virus from these two patients was not imported from South America. However, the first case that was reported in May 2016 had been confirmed to be the same as the strains currently found in South America the strains currently found in South America.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) said that the vector control is the key to control the disease, systematic and holistic approach through surveillance, prevention and control, outbreak management and outreach to arrest mosquito borne transmission in Singapore. Its objective is to keep mosquito-borne disease incidence low through reducing the mosquito population and breaking the disease transmission chain.
It said that it is continuing with vector control operations and outreach efforts in the cluster areas at Aljunied Crescent/ Sims Drive/ Paya Lebar Way/ Kallang Way/ Circuit Road/ Geylang East Central/ Geylang East Avenue 1; Bedok North Avenue 2/ Bedok North Avenue 3/ Bedok North Street 3; Joo Seng Road; Bishan Street 12; Elite Terrace and Ubi Crescent. A total of 183 breeding habitats have been found and destroyed in the cluster areas, of which 114 are from homes, and 69 from common areas/other premises as of 8 September 2016.
The statement said that outreach activities supporting the Mozzie Wipeout Movement Against Zika will be conducted all over Singapore this weekend to urge all residents to join in the collective effort in the fight against Zika by doing the 5-step Mozzie Wipeout, removing stagnant water and not littering.
Members of the public can obtain updated information on Zika and details on current clusters at NEA’s website: www.nea.gov.sg/zika and www.nea.gov.sg/zika-clusters.
