KUALA LUMPUR: Four research institutes have identified 172 Covid-19 Variant of Concern (VOC) cases within a span of nine days, of which 170 were Delta (B.1.617.2) and two were Omicron (B.1.1529).
The studies on the Covid-19 spike protein mutation were conducted by the institutes from Dec 25 until today (Jan 2), said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
The Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre, Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute and University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Molecular Biology Institute had detected 107,40 and 23 new Delta variant cases, respectively.
The Institute of Health and Community Medicine of University Malaysia Sarawak identified two new Omicron variant cases.
Data shared by Dr Noor Hisham showed that Kelantan had the most Delta variant cases with 60, followed by Perak (41), Penang (34), Johor (13), Negri Sembilan (6), Pahang (5), Melaka (5), Terengganu (3), Kedah (3) while the two Omicron cases were in Sarawak.
"The cumulative cases categorised as VOC and Variant of Interest (VOI) are 5,480 cases. Of the number, 5,460 are VOC while 20 are VOI.
"Overall, under the VOC category, there are 5,149 Delta variant cases, 233 Beta, 14 Alpha and 64 Omicron.
"As for VOI cases, 13 are Theta, four Kappa and three Eta," said Dr Noor Hisham in a statement tonight.
