From May 17 to 23, 12 South African and one Indian variations were verified in Malaysia.

From May 17 to 23, 12 South African and one Indian variations were verified in Malaysia, according to Dr. Noor Hisham.

PETALING JAYA: According to the Malaysian Health Ministry, 13 additional Covid-19 Variant of Concern (VOC) cases have been discovered — 12 from South Africa and one from India.

According to its director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the only Indian variation case involving a Malaysian was discovered in Labuan, while the South African variation cases were discovered in Kedah, Perlis, Selangor, and Johor.

"A Malaysian person was found to be Covid-19-positive with the Indian variation B.1.617.2 in one case."

"In this case, an Indian citizen and a close friend took a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Labuan on April 23."

"During the quarantine period, the Indian citizen was identified positive for Covid-19, while the local developed symptoms on May 3 and took the RTK-Ag test on the same day, and was later discovered positive via the RT-PCR test on May 4," he stated in a news release.

The 13 additional VOC instances were verified, he added, as a consequence of genetic monitoring done on Covid-19 samples by the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) from May 17 to 23.

"To date, 78 Covid-19 patients have been identified to be infected by the South African B.1.351 variety, while six instances have been identified to be infected by the Indian B.1.671 variety (containing sublineage B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2)," he noted.

According to Dr. Noor Hisham, the new variations had a greater Covid-19 infection and death rate, as was publicly known.