The Health Ministry says it is only practical to assume that the current local transmission of COVID cases may be a variant from India.

Permanent Secretary, Dr James Fong says this assumption is based on the first soldier who tested positive on April 18th who was handling a couple’s luggage who returned from India.

The sample obtained from the soldier, case 73, was sent to Australia to test for the variant of the virus.

“We have all read about the variants that are in India. It is reasonable to make an assumption that this is the variant. We have acted from the very beginning that yes this is the (Indian) variant.”

Dr Fong says they are hoping to receive the test result of this case soon.

“We should be getting more details of those samples, I’m hoping that we will be getting that very soon, so I can discuss it more extensively in terms of what it means.”

Dr Fong says whether the variant is from India or not, it does not change their action plan.