COVID-19: A new variant of the virus is spreading throughout the country

FOLLOWING the discovery of a new variant to the COVID-19 strain, the Health Ministry announced that the A701V mutation is rapidly increasing its rate of infectivity throughout the country.

“The A701V mutation, which was first detected in the Benteng Lahad Datu prison cluster, had subsequently spread to a vast majority of COVID-19 clusters in the Peninsula,” said Health Minister Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement yesterday.

While the role of this mutation is still unknown, Noor Hisham pointed out that the mutation was found to be present in most clusters that emerged since the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster was first reported on Sept 1, 2020.

“The presence of mutation A701V may have given the virus an added advantage in becoming the dominant strain, suggesting better transmissibility,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.

Noor Hisham also explained that the A701V mutation quickly passed on and is now present in the vast majority of COVID-19 cases in the third wave, both in Sabah and in Peninsular Malaysia.

Meanwhile, as of now, Noor Hisham confirmed that the highly infectious COVID-19 strain spreading in the UK has yet to be found in Malaysia.

However, the A701V variant have also been reported in other countries including South America, Australia, the Netherlands and Singapore.

“But we have yet to know the clinical impact of this variant, its infectivity rate or aggressiveness,” Dr Noor Hisham clarified.

Nevertheless, he said the Health Ministry will continue to monitor the virus mutation and its impact in gauging the COVID-19 vaccine’s effectiveness. – Dec 26, 2020

Subscribe and get top news delivered to your Inbox everyday for FREE