Covid-19: Philippine variant detected in Sarawak
The Philippine variant, or the P.3 variant, of the Covid-19 virus has been detected in Sarawak, according to the Sarawak Covid-19 Advisory Group (Scovag).
The group in a statement today said the variant was detected by the Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) in its genome sequencing analysis last week.
IHCM director Prof David Perera said...
The Philippine variant, or the P.3 variant, of the Covid-19 virus has been detected in Sarawak, according to the Sarawak Covid-19 Advisory Group (Scovag).
The group in a statement today said the variant was detected by the Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) in its genome sequencing analysis last week.
IHCM director Prof David Perera said the P.3 variant was found in four samples received from Kuching and four samples from Samarahan.
“These mutations have been associated with immune-escape from both vaccine-induced and natural infection protection, and greater transmissibility,” he said.
Meanwhile, Perera, who is also a member of Scovag, said uncontrolled transmission of the Covid-19 virus will lead to the emergence of more variants that may have an important impact on vaccine efficacy and severity of the disease.
He said the continuous evolving of new Covid-19 variants strongly emphasises the need for the public to continue adhering to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and the need to achieve herd immunity through the vaccination programme.
“These efforts (following SOPs and getting the vaccine) will help slow virus transmission and reduce the chance of future variants evolving in the community,” he said.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19 last year, IHCM has been tasked with testing samples and genome sequencing analyses to detect changes in the virus in the state.
- Bernama
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