The Health Ministry last week detected 13 new cases of Variant of Concern (VOC) involving 12 cases of the South African variant B.1.351 and one Indian variant B.1.617 from Covid-19 samples.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 12 cases of the South African variant B.1.351 were detected in Kedah, Perlis, Selangor and Johor while one case of the Indian variant B.1.617 was detected in Labuan involving a local.

“The results of genomic surveillance conducted continuously by the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) on Covid-19 samples from...