No Indian variant in town, says Sabah health director

No Indian variant in town, says Sabah health director

A message has claimed a 'variant of concern' has been detected in a locality under EMCO just outside the state capital.

Sabah barred non-essential travel between the state and Labuan on May 26 after the first case of the Delta variant was detected in the federal territory.
KOTA KINABALU:
Another text message claiming the Indian Covid-19 variant has been detected in Sabah has been making the rounds on social media.

However, state health director Dr Christina Rundi has dismissed the rumour spread over WhatsApp.

“Fake news,” she said briefly in her text message when asked about the message shared in chat groups.

The message claimed that the Indian variant, which is now known as the Delta variant, had been found in Taman Wangsa in Telipok, located on the outskirts of the state capital.

Taman Wangsa, among the host of localities under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) in Sabah, is under total lockdown from June 6 to June 19.

Rundi had also previously rubbished a similar rumour last month, which claimed Sabah had detected its first variant of concern (VOC).

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had yesterday said 19 cases of new variants of the SARS-Cov-2 virus, which are all VOCs, had been detected across the country between May 24 and June 4.

Four of these VOCs are the Delta variant (B.1.617.2). Three cases were found in Labuan and one in Kuala Lumpur.

Sabah barred non-essential travel between the state and Labuan on May 26 after the first case of the Delta variant was detected on the federal territory island.

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