Health workers conduct Covid-19 case detection. — Bernama file photo
KUCHING (Aug 5): Sarawak, Peninsular Malaysia and the neighbouring countries have not detected any case of Covid-19 Lambda variant, also known as Lineage C.37.
Prof Dr David Perera from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas)’s Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) – assured Sarawakians need not be unduly alarmed.
“The IHCM is committed to working closely with State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) through the institute’s SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Variant Sequencing Surveillance Programme to inform the public about the entry of any new Variant of Interest (VoI) or Variant of Concern (VoC) into Sarawak,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Perera, however, advised all communities in Sarawak to continue complying with the standard operating procedures (SOP) put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“This is to prevent any increase in virus transmissions, which could potentially lead to the emergence of new VoI or VoC. This is becoming more important as we slowly move into Phase 3 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP),” he pointed out.
Dr Perera said the earliest documented Lambda sample was from Peru, in December last year.
He added that in June this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially designated Lambda as a VoI.
“To-date, this VoI has been detected predominantly in South America where over 2,000 cases have been reported, in the US with over 1,000 cases, in Europe with less than 350 cases, and more recently in India with six cases.”
Dr Perera added that in Asia, single case importations had been reported in Japan, Australia and Bangladesh.