Indian ‘double mutant’ variant detected
Malaysia has detected its first Covid-19 variant of the highly infectious “Indian strain”, called B.1.617.1.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said the ‘double mutant’ variant was detected in an Indian national screened at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) following a whole-genome sequencing (WGS) that was done by the Institute for Medical Research from April 24 to May 1.
“We reported the first case of the Indian variant with double mutations called B.1.617.1 in an Indian national screened at KLIA,” he said yesterday.
The B.1.617.1 variant, which is feared to be contributing to a drastic increase in Covid-19 cases in India, has been designated as a variant of interest (VOI) by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO said the variant had been reported in at least 17 countries, raising global concern.
It said the predominant lineage of B.1.617 was first identified in India last December, although an earlier version was spotted in October.
Dr Adham said based on the WGS report, which involved 59 tests that were conducted from April 24 to May 1, authorities had identified several variants of concern (VOC).
“These include 30 more variants of concern (27 South African B.1.351 and three UK B.1.1.7) and one variant of interest, the Indian Variant B.1.617.
“Unfortunately, this is also the first report of South African variants of concern B.1.351 in Perak and Kelantan, involving some significant clusters with 10 cases in each state.
“In addition, we are still detecting the B.1.351 in Selangor (seven cases).
“There are also three more UK B.1.1.7 involving two cases in Selangor and a single case in Sandakan, Sabah (first report of VOC in Sabah), involving a nonMalaysian.
“This is also the first report of UK B.1.1.7 among persons without a history of travel overseas and hence, suggests local transmission.”
He said there were 48 cases of South African B.1.351, eight cases of UK B.1.1.7, one Indian variant B.1.617 and two Nigerian variant B. 1.525.
Meanwhile, he said, the rest of the WGS done in this batch (28) were from the current circulating Covid-19 lineage in Malaysia (B.1.524 and B1.466.2) from Selangor, Perak, Sabah and Sarawak.
“Also, there is a single case of C lineage (C.36) from a person with a history of travel to Egypt.”
The C.36 is the dominant lineage in Egypt.
“We also found that there is a gradual increase in the number of VOC, especially the South African B.1.351, among the samples that we are performing full genomic sequencing, suggesting potential replacement of the VOC (B.1.351) of the local lineage (B.1.524),” he added.