KUCHING, Aug 3 ― Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) has detected 180 new cases of the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) in the state.

Prof Dr David Perera, director of Unimas’ Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM), said this accounted for 50.7 per cent of the 355 Covid-19 cases in Sarawak that the institute sequenced.

In his latest report, Dr Perera revealed the cases as of July 27 were detected following on-going tracking and surveillance of SARS-COV-2 variants circulating in the state.

He revealed the Delta variant cases were found in Kuching, Bau, Lundu, Kota Samarahan, Simunjan, Sri Aman, Miri, and Bintulu.

"In Kuching Division, we have 124 cases, eight in Lundu, and five in Bau,” he said in a report submitted to State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah today.

In addition to the Delta variant, Dr Perera said as of July 27,  seven cases of the recently described Indonesian Variant of Concern (B.1.466.2) and two cases of the Beta variant (B.1.351) were also detected.

He said the two Beta variant cases were detected in Kuching, while the Indonesian Variant of Concern was detected in Kuching (4), Sibu (2), and Bintulu (1).

"As such, an accumulative total of 343 Variant of Concern (VOC)/Variant Of Interest (VOI) have been detected in Sarawak from Covid-19 positive cases.” he said.

On July 23, the Ministry of Health revealed Sarawak had recorded 93 Covid-19 Delta variant cases as of midnight of July 22 — the highest in the country. ― Borneo Post Online