Contagious Delta Variant Might Be In The Parliament, Says Health DG

29 July was a momentous day for Malaysians as a series of events led to the closure of the parliament upon detection of Covid-19 cases following the delay of the afternoon session. At first, the parliament was said to be delayed to Monday (2 August). However, Health Director-General, Dr Noor Hisham announced that the sessions will now be “pushed back till further notice”.

PEMBERITAHUAN BERKENAAN MESYUARAT KHAS DEWAN NEGARA

Setiausaha Dewan Negara
Parlimen Malaysia

1 Ogos 2021 pic.twitter.com/SYhWhmyylI

— Parlimen Malaysia (@MYParlimen) August 1, 2021

Delta variant might be in Parliament

Speaking on that, Health Director-General, Dr Noor Hisham made a thread on Twitter.

IMR telah menerima 4 sampel RT PCR kes positif COVID-19 hasil drp saringan yg dijalankan di Parlimen untuk analisis jujukan genom penuh (whole genomic sequencing). Sampel2 ini telah diterima daripada Makmal Kesihatan Awam Sungai Buloh. pic.twitter.com/p5UTanfYRy

— Noor Hisham Abdullah (@DGHisham) August 1, 2021

He has said that four cases have been detected in parliament through RT PCR. The samples from the Sungai Buloh Public Health Laboratory have been analysed with whole genomic sequencing.

“Through the analysis, all four of the samples show that there is a mutation on the spike protein and it is either the Delta variant or the Kappa variant.”

“Based on the Variant of Concern that is circulating in the community, there is a big chance that it is the Delta variant.”

Dr Noor Hisham elaborated that clinical studies reported that cases infected with the Delta variant have a virus content that is 1,200 times higher than cases infected with the normal (non-VOC) variant.

Double standard? 

There were many netizens who replied to the thread and asked the Health DG if the SOPs are double standard.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments. 

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