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HomeNewsDelta variant dominant Covid-19 strain affecting Sarawakians, says Uggah

Delta variant dominant Covid-19 strain affecting Sarawakians, says Uggah

A nurse prepares to conduct a Covid-19 swab test. — Bernama photo

KUCHING (Aug 28): The Delta variant has now been identified as the dominant variant of Covid-19 affecting people in the state, said Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

He said this is based on the latest report dated Aug 26 by the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) director Prof Dr David Perera to SDMC today.

“The overall Delta variant detection rate of 82 per cent observed in this report represents an increase from the 73 per cent reported on August 17.

“Dr David added almost all of Kuching Division cases sequenced were of the Delta variant with a detection rate of 99 per cent, which is 68 out of 69 cases sequenced,” he said in a statement today.

Uggah said that high detection rates of the Delta variant were also observed in Samarahan Division at 93 per cent (38 out of 41 cases sequenced) and in Serian Division with 95 per cent (6 out of 17 cases sequenced).

“Sharp increases in the Delta variant detection rates were also observed in Bintulu with 84 per cent (20 out of 24 cases), Miri at 65 per cent (9 out of 14) and in Sibu at 60 per cent (6 out of 27).

“The same variant has also been detected in Mukah with a detection rate of 78 per cent (7 out of 9 cases sequenced),” he said.

He added that similarly, according to Dr. David, the Delta variant had also been detected in Sarikei with one case and Betong with two cases.

Uggah informed that the IHCM is tracking the SAR COV-2 variants circulating in the state for the committee.

“Dr. David said as of August 17, the institute has done genome sequencing on 220 positive cases. A total of 179 additional Variant of Concern (VOC) and Variants of Interest (VOI) had then been detected from them.

“Of these VOC/VOI, 178 were of the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant and one case of the recently described Indonesian VOI (B.1.466.2). This single case was detected in Bintulu.

“To date, an accumulative total of 771 VOC/VOI had been detected in Sarawak from over 2,000 positive cases sequenced as of August 17 this year,” he said.






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