The Malaysian Insight

THE Institute for Medical Research has identified 43 new Covid-19 cases of the Delta variant, director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.

He said 38 of them were detected in Selangor while five were found in Kuala Lumpur.

To date, 710 cases involving variant of concerns (VOC) and variants of interest (VOI) have been detected in Malaysia, he said.

Of this, 690 were VOC, while 20 were VOI.

The Delta variant forms the highest number of VOC cases.

“Cumulatively, for VOC, there were 467 Delta variant cases, 209 Beta variant cases and 14 Alpha variant cases detected to date.

“As for VOI, there were 13 Theta variants, four Kappa variants and three Eta variant cases,” he said in a statement today.

The Delta variant, which first emerged in India, is a highly contagious strain and is currently responsible for a surge infections in most parts of the world. 

A VOI is a variant rgar is suspected to either be more contagious than the initial strain, cause more severe disease, or resistant to the protection offered by vaccines. – August 17, 2021.