KUCHING, AUGUST 18: The highly contagious Delta variant of the COVID -19 is on the uptick in Sarawak, with over 73 per cent cases recorded as of Aug 10.
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s (Unimas) Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) said that it was “a sharp increase” from the 50 per cent cases detected a week earlier on August 3.
Its director, Prof Dr David Perera, noted that in Kuching Division alone, the variant detection rate stood at a staggering 90 per cent, with cases also detected in Bau, Lundu, Kota Samarahan, Simunjan, Miri and Bintulu.
“As part of this ongoing surveillance, we would like to report that as of Aug 10, a total of 249 additional Variant of Concern (VOC) and Variant of Interest (VOI) were detected from 338 Covid-19 positive cases sequenced.
“Of these VOC/VOI, 248 were of the Delta Variant (B.1.617.2),” Perera said.
Additionally, six Delta variant cases were detected in Sibu and a case of the recently identified Indonesian VOI (B.1.466.2) was detected in Bintulu.
COVID-19 infection involving the Delta variant in Sarawak was first detected on June 18.
