KUALA LUMPUR – The Ministry of Health identified nine cases of South African B.1.351 Covid-19 variant local infections.
Director-General of Health, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the South African B.1.351 variant was first reported in the world in December last year at the United Kingdom and South Africa.
According to him, the variant was found in Malaysia on March and it has close connection to the Jalan Lima Cluster as shown in the phylogenetic analysis.
“Two cases believed to be from the Jalan Lima Cluster involved employees at a company based at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
“However, it is difficult to identify and verify how the employees are infected by the B.1.351 variant. Besides that, another case was identified from the Kebun Baru Cluster while the other case is a family member to the Covid-19 case living under the same roof,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said, following the discovery of the variant, the MOH will run more genome sequence tests on the positive samples from the Kuala Langat and Sepang districts.
“Based on the tests, we found five other cases from the locality infected by the variant. Four from the Kebun Baru Cluster and another one from the Jalan Lima Cluster.
“In total, nine Covid-19 positive cases are from that variant,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said that the B.1.351 variant has various spike protein mutation, including L18F, D80A, D614G, D215G, A701V, K417N, E484K, N501Y and L241_A243del.
“However, the variant does not have the H69_V70del mutation as found in the UK B.1.1.7 variant.
“Genome sequence analysis also found that the infection could originate from Covid-19 positive cases involving workers from a company based in KLIA near Sepang and this infected the locals in Kuala Langat district.
“Therefore, the Kuala Langat and Sepang District Health Offices and IMR will continue to run full genome sequence tests on the clinical samples to determine the presence of the variant and other variants.
“MOH will continue to be alert and implement various public health measures to curb the spread of the new variant in Malaysia,” he added. –MalaysiaGazette
