The National Environment Agency (NEA) stated that there were 14 new cases of locally transmitted Zika virus infection as of 3 pm on 15 September 2016, which brought the total number to 355 cases.
It is said that 6 of the new cases were from Aljunied cluster.
NEA states that there are 7 clusters currently, they are 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, Ubi Crescent, and Jalan Raya/Circuit Road.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) had announced earlier that the National Public Health Laboratory and A*STAR’s Bioinformatics Institute had 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.
Vector control is still being carried out by NEA to control the spread of the infection via mosquitoes.
