Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Universiti Malaya, said Covid-19 variants such as B.1.1.7 from the UK, 501Y.V2 from South Africa and P.1 from Brazil were still being studied by experts.
Due to the lack of data available on these mutations, including on how long they could remain infectious, he told FMT it would be better for international travellers to be quarantined for 14 days instead of the reduced 10.
“We don’t really know how long the infectious periods for these newer variants are, so it would be better to err on the side of caution. We shouldn’t add the new variants to the problems we’re already having in Malaysia.
“If they have a longer infectious period, then community infections by the newer variants can happen if we let people out of quarantine too soon,” he warned.
With the public health sector already strained by the amount of cases to handle, he said a more infectious variant would naturally lead to a further increase in daily cases.
“Even if the proportion of severe cases remains the same, an overall increase in new infections will overload our already strained public health system.
“The strain is already showing and I do not know how long we can cope with these kinds of numbers,” he said.
Awang Bulgiba, who is also the secretary-general of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, added that one issue here was the lack of genome sequencing and associated analysis.
Conducting these tests could uncover if Covid-19 mutations were the reason behind the surge in infections and cases in intensive care, he said.
On Jan 11, director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah revealed that Malaysia had detected its first case of the B.1.1.7 variant, involving a traveller who had been to Britain last month. However, no domestic transmissions of the mutant virus have been detected here yet.
The mandatory quarantine period was reduced from 14 days to 10 on Dec 14, which Noor Hisham said was in line with latest clinical reports which showed that Covid-19’s infection rate was highest in the first week after exposure to the virus.
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