Health Ministry detects 15 more 'variants of concern' cases

 

The Health Ministry has detected 15 more cases of Covid-19 variants of concern in Kelantan, Selangor, Kedah, and Negeri Sembilan, bringing the national total to 72 of such cases.

The ministry’s director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 14 of these are the B.1.315 variant that was first detected in South Africa, and one case involved the B.1.612.2 variant that was first detected in India.

“So, of the four variants of concern, three have been identified in our country. This is very concerning because these variants can spread quickly and have a high death rate...

“We are worried that these variants are spreading. We believe it has already spread to many states, and we hope they can control and prevent it from spreading further amongst Malaysians through the third movement control order,” he said.

He was speaking at a joint press conference with Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob today.

Of the 14 new cases involving the B.1.351 variant, Noor Hisham said seven were detected in the Kampung Domis cluster in Kelantan, and one case involved a healthcare worker in the state.

Three more cases were close contacts to active cases in Selangor, two cases were detected in Kedah, and one case was detected in the Kampung Bangkahulu cluster in Negeri Sembilan.

In his previous press conference yesterday (May 10), Noor Hisham said there were 48 cases of B.1.351 that were detected – 27 in Selangor, 10 in Perak, 10 in Kelantan, and one in Negeri Sembilan.

This Covid-19 variant has faster transmission, dampened vaccine efficacy, and enhanced ability to re-infect Covid-19 survivors.

Meanwhile, one case of B.1.612.2 involved an Indian national who arrived before Malaysia banned passenger flights from that country.

“We’ve identified one case of the Indian variant, namely B.1.617.2, involving an Indian national who was detected (to have Covid-19) on April 7 and was quarantined.

“He was found to have symptoms after being tested negative in swab tests twice, was admitted to hospital, and died on April 21,” he said.

Prior to this, one imported case of B.1.617.1 was detected in a traveller who arrived in Malaysia on April 10 and was found to have Covid-19 on the same day.

Both B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 are descendants of the B.1.617 lineage, the latter of which was recently classified as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organisation and is the fourth Covid-19 variant to be designated as such.

For the record, only a portion of samples from confirmed Covid-19 cases are genetically sequenced to identify the virus variant involved.

Noor Hisham did not disclose how much sequencing has been done in the country so far, nor did he provide an estimate of the overall prevalence of the variants.

Only certain media outlets were allowed to be physically present at the press conference and ask questions, while other media outlets could only observe the proceedings online without the ability to ask questions.

This applies to most of Ismail's press conferences on the movement control order (MCO).

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said the Covid-19 variants of concern have infected most states in Malaysia, and the possibility that it has infected other states as well cannot be ruled out.

“It may have spread to other states, we are not sure. But we are conducting random tests to identify those variants,” he said.

He said it is hoped that the MCO would prevent the variants from spreading further and that people would take precautions to avoid becoming infected.

He pointed out that the virus can only survive and mutate if it continuously finds new hosts to infect.

“If the virus can’t find a new host to infect in two weeks, the virus will die,” he said. - Mkini