PUTRAJAYA – The Health Ministry has called for stricter border controls, including implementing risk assessments on individuals returning from abroad, to prevent the Lambda variant from spreading into the country.
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said so far the ministry has not detected cases involving the Lambda variant in the country, adding that it would further enhance its capability by running full genomic sequencing to detect the emergence of any variants of concern.
"The mutations that have been identified so far are Lambda, Epsilon, and so on. Our concern is that these mutations are resistant to the vaccines we are using. So far, Alhamdulillah, the vaccines we are using are still effective against the Delta variant,” he said during a press conference on Covid-19 developments today.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, Health Deputy Director-General (Public Health) Datuk Dr Chong Chee Keong, Secretary-General Datuk Mohd Shafiq Abdullah and Selangor State Health Department director Datuk Dr Sha'ari Ngadiman were also present at the press conference. – Bernama, August 13, 2021
