Health DG: 178 cases of Covid-19 Delta variant identified in Sarawak from Aug 16-29

Graphic depicting the Covid-19 virus. Image credit: Pixabay, Creative Commons License

By Adrian Lim

KUCHING, Sept 2: The Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) has identified 178 cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant in Sarawak from Aug 16 to 29, according to Health Ministry’s director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Dr Noor Hisham said in a Facebook post on Aug 31 that a total of 265 Covid-19 cases from the Delta variant, which is also a Variant of Concern (VOC), were identified from Aug 16 to 29 by Institute of Medical Research (IMR), Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE) Universiti Institut Mara (UiTM) Selangor and IHCM.

“IMR has identified 39 cases of the Delta variant, (B.1.617.2), iPROMISE has identified 48 cases of the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) while Unimas IHCM has identified (IHCM) 178 cases of the Delta variant (B.1.617.2).

“With that, the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases categorised as VOC and Variant of Interest (VOI) is 1,221 cases.

“Out of that total, 1,201 cases are VOC and 20 cases are VOI.

“In total, up to to-date, for VOC, there are 978 cases of the Delta variant, 209 cases of the Beta variant and 14 cases of Alpha variant while for VOI, there are 13 cases of the Theta variant, four cases of the Kappa variant and three cases of the Eta variant,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sarawak reported a total of 757 Covid-19 cases with VOC and VOI as of Aug 29, the highest number among all the States in Malaysia based on a table shared by Dr Noor Hisham.

Out of that number, there were 695 cases of locally transmitted Delta variant and one imported case, 46 cases of the Beta variant, 13 cases of the Theta variant and one imported case of the Eta variant. — DayakDaily