Health ministry reports 790 Delta cases in Sarawak in the last week

Health ministry reports 790 Delta cases in Sarawak in the last week

This makes up more than 75% of the variant of concern cases detected in the whole country since Oct 29.

The Delta variant has a higher infectivity rate compared with the Wuhan virus which sparked the Covid-19 pandemic last year. (AP pic)
PETALING JAYA:
There have been 1,047 variant of concern (VOC) cases detected since Oct 29, all of which were the Delta strain.

In a statement, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the data was a product of ongoing research conducted by the Institute of Health and Community Medicine, UKM Medical Molecular Biology, the Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute and the Malaysia Genome Institute.

The cases were identified in 11 states, with the vast majority identified in Sarawak, where 790 cases were detected.

This was followed by Penang (56), Johor (55), Negeri Sembilan (34), Pahang (34), Selangor (31), Sabah (16), Melaka (16), Kuala Lumpur (6), Perlis (6) and Labuan (3).

VOC cases were not identified in any of the remaining states.

This brings the total number of Delta cases to 3,432, of which 1,788, or 52%, have been detected in Sarawak. The states that have recorded the next highest cumulative totals are Selangor (388), Johor (210) and Penang (195).

Noor Hisham was previously reported as saying that the Delta variant had a higher infectivity rate (R0, or R-nought) and thus was much more transmissible compared with the Wuhan virus which sparked the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

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