Photo of laboratory testing for illustration purposes only.
KUCHING (Sept 13): Genomic sequencing by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) on Covid-19 variants in Sarawak has again confirmed that Delta is “currently the dominant circulating Covid-19 variant”, said Dr David Perera.
The Unimas Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) director revealed that as of Aug 31, a total of 303 additional Variants of Concern (VOCs) were detected from 307 positive cases sequenced by IHCM.
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“All VOCs detected were of the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant. The overall Delta variant detection rate of 99 per cent observed in this report represents an increase from the 82 per cent reported recently by IHCM on Aug 2.
“Thus, the data suggests that the Delta variant is currently the dominant circulating variant in Sarawak,” he said in his latest report to State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas today.
The IHCM, a research institute under Unimas, has been helping SDMC to track the Covid-19 variants circulating.
Dr Perera added the situation had occurred in Kuching, Serian, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong, Sarikei, Mukah, Miri, and Limbang divisions, while Import A cases (from overseas) had a 100 per cent detection rate.
Sibu and Kapit divisions on the other hand registered a 97 per cent detection rate for the variant, while Bintulu Division had a 98 per cent detection rate.