KUCHING, Aug 28: The Delta variant has now been identified as the dominant variant of Covid-19 affecting the people in Sarawak.
This is according to the latest report by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas)’s Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) director Prof Dr David Perera dated Aug 26, 2021 to Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas today.
The IHCM is tracking the SAR CoV-2 variants circulating in the State for the committee.
Dr Perera said as of Aug 17, the Institute had done genome sequencing on 220 positive cases.
A total of 179 additional Variant of Concern (VOC) and Variants of Interest (VOI) had then been detected from them.
“Of these VIC/VOI, 178 were of the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant and one case of the recently described Indonesian VOI (B.1.466.2). This single case was detected in Bintulu.
“The overall Delta variant detection rate of 82 per cent observed in this report represents an increase from the 73 per cent reported on Aug 17,” he said in the report.
Dr Perera added that almost all of Kuching Division cases sequenced were of the Delta variant with a detection rate of 99 per cent or 68 out of 69 cases sequenced.
“High detection rates of the Delta variant were also observed in the Samarahan Division at 93 per cent (38 out of 41 cases sequenced) while in the Serian Division with 95 per cent (16 out of 17 cases sequenced).
“Sharp increases in the Delta variant detection rates were also observed in Bintulu with 84 per cent (20 out of 24 cases), Miri at 65 per cent (9 out of 14) and in Sibu at 60 per cent (16 out of 27).
“The same variant has also been detected in Mukah with a detection rate of 78 per cent (7 out of 9 cases sequenced,” he pointed out.
Similarly, he said the Delta variant had also been detected in Sarikei with one case and Betong with two cases.
“To date, an accumulative total of 771 VOC/VOI had been detected in Sarawak from over 2,000 positive cases sequenced as of Aug 17 this year,” he emphasised. — DayakDaily
