‘South African strain in Kelantan may be from trips to KL’
KOTA BARU: The South African Covid-19 coronavirus B.1.351 variant detected in Kelantan may have been brought back by locals who attended social gatherings or events in Kuala Lumpur, a state executive councillor said.
State Local Government, Housing and Health Committee chairman Dr Izani Husin said the variant was believed to have been brought in through interstate movements.
He said up to yesterday, there were 10 cases involving the variant from the Bunut Sarang Burung cluster.
“The South African B.1.351 variant is here as a result of interstate travel. Maybe, the people of Kelantan had travelled to Kuala Lumpur for a feast before returning with the variant here.
“For cases caused by interstate travel, we cannot blame travellers (outsiders) alone because it involves people travelling to Kelantan and also locals travelling outside,” Dr Izani said yesterday.
He said the presence of the coronavirus variant in the state was a cause for concern because it had several dangerous effects.
“Among them are the increase in infectivity rate and ability of the virus to evade the immune response. The situation will be more difficult for those infected by this variant.
“I would like to remind everyone, including the VIPs, to refrain from interstate travel if there is no pressing matter.
“This (interstate travel by VIPs) has posed a challenge to the police because each and every one of them had approval letters.”
Earlier, the Health Ministry had detected 27 cases involving the variant nationwide.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah was reported to have said the cases were detected through genomic surveillance conducted from April 24 until yesterday.
He said these 27 cases were then confirmed by the Institute for Medical Research (IMR).
He said this variant was first detected in Perak and Kelantan, involving two clusters, along with seven cases in Selangor.