MIRI – The South African coronavirus variant has been detected in Kuching amid more Covid-19 cases and deaths in Sarawak.
Prof Dr David Pereira, head of the Institute of Health and Community Medicine at University Malaysia Sarawak, said seven such cases have been recorded in Kuching, with the most recent one on May 6.
“Today, we would like to report the detection of seven cases of the South African variant of concern (VOC) B.1.351 in the Kuching district. The earliest case we sequenced was tested positive by RT-PCR on April 26 and the most recent case on May 6. Additionally, we have detected a B.1.530 variant that appears to be dominant in Miri but is also seen in Kuching.
“We have also detected more cases of the P3 VUI in Samarahan and Sibu. Finally, our data also shows that the B.1.466.2 ‘Pasai’ variant continues to circulate throughout the state,” he said in a statement today.
He added that the Pasai variant in Sibu continues to circulate statewide and, with the P3VUI variant, the two share similarities with the UK variant.
Dr Pereira issued the report to the state Disaster Management Committee, whose secretariat shared it with the press.
These mutated variants are much more aggressive in terms of transmission, he added.
Today, Sarawak logged another 608 Covid-19 cases and two new deaths, according to the secretariat.
The two fatalities were a woman aged 84 in Miri Hospital and a man aged 90 in Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching.
The coronavirus death toll in the state stands at 239.
Of the 608 new infections today, Sibu saw 120 cases.
Miri recorded 110, followed by Kuching (86), Kapit (76), Bintulu (50), Selangau (32), Pakan (19) and Meradong (15), with other districts logging fewer than 15 cases each.
The secretariat also said there are two new clusters today.
The Kenyalang Park cluster in Kuching saw 27 people in a housing area infected while the Tebatang cluster in Serian has 19 villagers down with Covid-19. The new clusters bring the cumulative number of clusters to 83. – The Vibes, May 20, 2021
