The Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH), has confirmed that 2 recent cases of Covid-19 Variant Delta Plus have been detected in Malaysia.
Citing Astro Awani’s report, MoH Director General Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said, the 2 cases are import cases involving Malaysian students returning from the United Kingdom.
The two Malaysians had arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on October 2 and had undergone RT-PCR tests and were found to be negative for the first sample. However, the result was positive when tested on a second sample taken on October 7, 2021, during the quarantine period.
Dr. Noor Hisham added that the Delta Plus variant is type AY.4 which is one of the 75 lineage types derived from the Delta variant. This AY.4.2 variant has 2 additional mutations on the spike protein namely Y145H and A222V.
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report on October 27, there has been an increase in cases of Covid-19 variant AY.4.2 since July this year. To date, the variant has been detected in at least 42 countries around the world.
The MOH will continue to monitor closely from time to time to detect the existence of Delta subvariants to curb the spread of these variants into the community.