Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged the Centre to suspend flight services to Singapore as a new coronavirus strain found there is considered to be dangerous for children.
In a tweet in Hindi, Kejriwal said the new strain can come to India in the form of third wave of pandemic, and urged the Centre to start work on COVID-19 vaccines for children.
In another tweet, the chief minister shared a news report which said that authorities in Singapore have warned that the new strain is infecting more children and the island city-state will shut schools from Wednesday.
Also read: Singaporean authorities warn children susceptible to new COVID-19 variants, shut schools
From Wednesday, all primary, secondary and junior colleges will shift to full home-based learning in Singapore until the end of the school term on May 28 because of the new strain.
"Some of these (virus) mutations are much more virulent, and they seem to attack the younger children," Singapore's Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said. None of the children who have contracted the virus are seriously ill and a few have mild symptoms, he added.
The national capital, which is recovering from the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, reported 4,482 new cases and 265 deaths in the preceding 24 hours as of Tuesday. The downtrend in positivity rate continued, with it dipping to 6.89 per cent.
Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party have been constantly attacking the Centre on various issues related to COVID-19. After alleging insufficient supply of medical oxygen by the Centre to the national capital during the peak of second wave, they have been accusing the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of exporting COVID-19 vaccines to other countries when India was in need of vaccines.
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