KUALA LUMPUR: Another 298 Covid-19 cases linked to variants were detected by five research institutes in studies on spike protein mutation conducted from Nov 19 to Dec 8.
This includes the sole Omicron (B.1.1.529) case in the country so far which was announced by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin on Dec 2.
The Omicron case, linked to a 19-year-old foreign student who had arrived from South Africa via Singapore on Nov 19, was identified by the Faculty of Medicine-University of Malaya (FOM-UM), said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today.
FOM-UM had also detected 108 new cases of the Delta (B.1.617.2) Variant of Concern (VOC), he added.
Dr Noor Hisham said studies by the research institutes had found that a majority of cases were associated with the Delta VOC.
The Institute of Medical Research, he said, logged 115 VOC cases, of which 108 were Delta while six were Beta (B.1.1351).
The Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute and the Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre had identified 44 and 17 new VOC cases, all of which are the Delta variant.
The University Putra Malaysia teaching hospital registered 13 new VOC cases where 12 were the Delta variant while one was the Beta variant.
"The cumulative cases infected by Covid-19 VOC and Variant of Interest (VOI) is 4,990. Up to 4,970 are VOC while 20 are VOI.
"As for VOC, there are 4,722 Delta variant cases, 233 linked to Beta, 14 to Alpha and 1 to Omicron.
"Meanwhile, for VOI, there are 13 Theta variant cases, four Kappa and three Eta," he said.
Data shared by Dr Noor Hisham showed that Selangor recorded the most Delta variant cases at 82 followed by Perak and Penang which had 38 cases respectively.
In Kedah, there were 35, Sabah (33), Kelantan (26), Kuala Lumpur (9), Pahang (8) and Terengganu (8).
There were three each in Negri Sembilan, Labuan and Johor and two each in Putrajaya and Perlis.
As for the Beta variant, three were found in Selangor and one each in Perak, Penang, Sabah and Pahang. There were none in other states.
To date, the only Omicron case in the country was reported in Perak.
