A very contagious mutation of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 in Malaysia has been discovered, said Health director-general, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, during the Health Ministry’s daily update yesterday (29th April).
According to Dr Noor Hisham, the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) discovered that a more contagious variant of the SARS-CoV-2 was responsible for 120 Covid-19 infections in Malaysia, reports Malay Mail.
Based on the Institute’s findings, it was discovered that, “Case 26 has one mutation. The mutation was very contagious and infected 120 individuals,” said the Health DG when questioned whether Malaysia identified any mutations.
Dr Noor Hisham understood the cause of public concern seeing as, “India reported to have 10 mutations, but we were made to understand that there are 30 mutations of this virus so far,” he said.
Currently, the Health Ministry is urging IMR to “not only conduct tests but also study the virus by isolating and culture in order to find out whether there is a different strain of the virus present here.”
He added that all three strains of SARS-CoV-2 that have been identified can be found in Malaysia.
“Our cases are mostly from strain B which is similar to the type which infected the Chinese in Wuhan if compared with strain A which is from the United States and strain C from Europe.”
Nonetheless, the Health DG adds that more research needs to be done to truly identify the severity of the strain we’re dealing with at the current time.
“We have to conduct more study on the positive Covid-19 cases under the second wave, where the cases involved people returning from the affected countries.”
It’s crucial to be as cautious as possible. We cannot risk another outbreak.
Also read: Health DG: Hospitals Are Now Using Less Than 30% Of Their Capacity On Covid-19 Patients
