Malaysia detects new coronavirus strain ‘10 times’ more infectious

August 18, 2020 153 Views No Comment

KUALA LUMPUR, AUG 17 (AGENCIES): A new strain of the novel coronavirus called ‘D614G’, deemed ten times more infectious, has been detected in Malaysia, said Director General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah in a Facebook post, Bloomberg report stated.

Abdullah said the neighborhood needed to be careful, after a D614G mutation of the novel coronavirus was discovered.

“It’s is found to be 10 times easier to infect different people and easier to spread, if spread by ‘super spreader’ individuals,” Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Sunday (Aug 16).

The mutation was detected by the Malaysian Institute for Medical Research, because of culture and isolation tests on three instances from the nation’s Sivagangga audience and one case from the Ulu Tiram cluster.

“So far, these two clusters have been found to be under control as a consequence of the rapid public health management actions,” explained Dr Noor Hisham.

“This first test and many follow-up evaluations are being conducted to examine several different cases, including for the index case for both clusters,” he said. Dr. Noor added that the D614G mutation was detected by scientists in July, also is likely to induce current vaccine research to be faulty or ineffective towards this mutation.

As per a Bloomberg report, the mutation has been spotted in three cases from a cluster that apparently started when a restaurant owner and permanent resident returned to the country from India.

The man had reportedly breached the mandatory 14-day home quarantine and since then sentenced to five months in prison and fined. The strain was also found in another cluster involving people returning from the Philippines.

Dr Noor Hisham advised the public to continue to apply preventive measures and general health management by taking steps involving physical distancing, self-hygiene practices and wearing face masks.

“People need to be wary and take greater precautions because this strain has now been found in Malaysia. The people’s cooperation is very needed so that we can together break the chain of infection from any mutation,” he further said.

Malaysia reported 25 brand new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, nine of which were local broadcasts while 16 were imported.