KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — A total of 19 Covid-19 cases detected from May 24 until today involved mutated spike proteins classified of the Delta and Beta variants, Health Ministry Director-General Tan Sri Door Hisham Abdullah revealed today.
Dr Noor Hisham explained that four new cases of the Delta strain were detected in Labuan and Kuala Lumpur, while 15 new cases of the Beta strain were detected across six states with six cases in Johor, five in Kelantan, and one each in Kuala Lumpur, Kedah, Melaka, and Terengganu.
“All three cases (of the Delta strain) in the Federal Territory of Labuan are infections from abroad which are cases from the Layangan Labuan cluster. Meanwhile, the one case in Kuala Lumpur is a local infection,” he wrote in his daily Covid-19 statement.
As for the new Beta cases, Dr Noor Hisham said all infections were of local transmissions.
He explained these variants formerly known as the Indian and South African variants has since been renamed Delta and Beta respectively following instructions by the World Health Organisation to use Greek names to avoid stigma by associating the nations where the strain was first discovered.
The Delta, Beta and Alpha strains make up the Variants of Concern (VOC), while four other strains, namely the Alpha, Theta, Eta, and Kappa strains are categorised as Variants of Interest (VOI).
“Up to June 4, the cumulative number of those infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus which is categorised as VOCs and VOIs is a total of 138 cases.
“From this total, 122 cases are VOC and 16 cases are VOI,” he said.
His statement detailed that to date, there have been nine cases of the Beta strain discovered locally, 104 cases with the Delta strain, nine cases with the Kappa strain, one with Eta, and 12 with the Theta strain.
Additionally, Dr Noor Hisham revealed numbers that showed Selangor as the state with the highest number of VOC or VOI cases with 42, followed by Kelantan with 23, and Sarawak with 20 cases.