Omicron Malaysia South African student South Africa Delta variant of concern VOC (Picture for representational purposes only) Healthcare worker Nik Zulia Asma Mohd Zaki conducting tests on the samples obtained during Covid-19 screening at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital. PIX: HAZROL ZAINAL / MalaysiaGazette / 21 MAY 2020. Delta variant of concern VOC Adham Baba infection rate viral load
(Picture for representational purposes only) Healthcare worker Nik Zulia Asma Mohd Zaki conducting tests on the samples obtained during Covid-19 screening at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital. PIX: HAZROL ZAINAL / MalaysiaGazette / 21 MAY 2020.

By Muhammad Azizul Osman

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia detected an additional 134 Covid-19 cases involving the Variants of Concern (VOC) between 7 until 19 October. 132 of the cases were the Delta variant (B.1.617.2), meanwhile, two cases involved the Beta variant (B.1.351).

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the VOC were detected from the continuous research by the UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI-UKM), Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE-UiTM), Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC-UM), Malaysia Genome Institute (MGI) and Institute for Medical Research (IMR).

“UMBI-UKM had detected 79 cases, all of them were Delta variant (B.1.617.2), iPROMISE-UiTM detected 10 cases of Delta variant (B.1.617.2), TIDREC-UM identified 7 cases of Delta variant (B.1.617.2).

“MGI detected one case of Delta variant (B.1.617.2), meanwhile, IMR detected 37 cases, where 35 were Delta variant (B.1.617.2) and two cases were from the Beta variant (B.1.351),” said the Director-General of Health, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Further breakdown on the new VOC cases showed that the 132 cases of Delta variant were found in all 12 states, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur.

Johor had the highest number of cases with 43, Negeri Sembilan recorded 18 cases, 15 were recorded in Melaka, 13 cases in Kuala Lumpur, Sabah and Selangor, six cases in Penang, four cases in Pahang, two cases in Sarawak, and one case each in Kelantan, Kedah, Terengganu, Perlis and Putrajaya.

Meanwhile, two cases of Beta variant (B.1.351) were detected in Pahang.

For the record, 2,386 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections have been categorized as the VOC and Variant of Interest (VOI) in the country, where, 2,366 cases were VOC and 20 cases were VOI. -MalaysiaGazette

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