Singapore hunkers down as COVID-19 cases go up: Live blog

MOH also said early in May that three local cases have the Kappa variant.

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The Kappa variant is a “variant of interest” under WHO’s classification, meaning it has caused community transmission and clusters, or has been detected in multiple countries.

MOH said the National Public Health Laboratory conducts viral genomic sequencing on all COVID-19 cases in Singapore to detect variants.

“Sequencing and analysis takes about seven days on average but it may take longer, particularly if there is a lower viral load in the swab specimens,” a spokesperson said. “Due to the time taken to carry out this process, variant cases will be reported as confirmed cases, but not necessarily as variant cases, in our daily press releases.”

The spokesperson said sequencing is an ongoing process carried out concurrently with “prompt public health action”.