As the Delta variant wrecks havoc across Malaysia, the government is investing RM3 million to detect and study more cases with variants of concern.
Health Minister Dr Adham Baba announced a new consortium today that will perform genomic sequencing on 3,000 samples within three months, from August to October.
This consortium is a collaboration among the Health Ministry, Higher Education Ministry and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry.
“The consortium has received an allocation of RM3 million to perform Covid-19 genomic sequencing on 3,000 samples in a span of three months starting August 2021.
“Among the criteria used for choosing the samples include samples with a cytokine value of less than 25, samples from clusters with a high positivity rate and samples from deaths, brought-in-dead cases or ICU cases,” Adham told an online press conference today.
These are among the 12 types of samples that will be studied.
The consortium is made up of the Institute of Medical Research (IMR), UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute, UM Medical Faculty, UM Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre, Unimas, UiTM and Malaysia Genome Institute.
Over the past few months, genomic sequencing has mostly been performed by the IMR.
Only a small portion of Malaysia’s Covid-19 infections - numbering tens of thousands each week - are analysed.
100 new Delta cases detected
Meanwhile, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah shared today that 106 new Delta variant Covid-19 cases had been detected from July 12 to July 22.
This brings the total tally of known Delta cases in Malaysia to 189.
The IMR and Unimas’ Institute of Health and Community Medicine also detected 10 new Beta cases and three new Alpha cases.
This means the country has recorded a total of 206 Beta cases, 14 Alpha cases, 13 Theta cases, four Kappa cases and three Eta cases.
- Mkini
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