Health Ministry detects 22 cases involving beta, delta Covid variants

The National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) of the Ministry of Health (MOH) has detected 22 more Covid-19 cases involving two variants of concern (VOCs) between June 11 and June 19, said Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said that of the total, 14 involved the Beta variant (B.1.351) and eight the Delta variant (B.1.617.2).

Of the 14 Beta variant cases, he said three cases each were reported in Selangor, Sabah, and Terengganu, two in Kedah, and one each in Perak, Johor, and Kelantan.

"As for the eight Delta variant cases, two each were detected in Johor, Labuan, and Negeri Sembilan and one each in Perlis and Penang," he said in a statement yesterday.

Noor Hisham said the latest development brought the total number of VOC cases in the country to 167 as of June 19, while the number of Variant of Interest (VOI) cases stood at 16 for the same period.

Three VOCs have been identified in Malaysia, to date, namely the Beta variant with 137 cases, the Delta variant (21 cases), and the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7) with nine cases.

For the VOI, there are also three variants, namely the Theta variant (P.3) with 12 cases, Eta variant (B.1.525) with three cases, and Kappa variant (B.1.617.1) with only one case.

He said the MOH would continue genomic surveillance for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, increase Covid-19 screening tests, contact detection, and case isolation as well as other public healthcare measures to curb the spread of the variants in the community.

- Bernama

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