More infectious mutation of coronavirus COVID-19 detected in Malaysia

"People need to be aware and be more careful because the COVID-19 virus with this D614G mutation has been proven to be detected in Malaysia," health chief Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

File Photo (Reuters)

Kuala Lumpur: A mutation of the deadly coronavirus that is far more infectious has been detected from two COVID-19 clusters in Malaysia, according to health authorities.

"Recent results received from the Laboratory Medical Research Institute (IMR): as suspected D614G type mutation has been spotted from COVID-19 virus isolation test for three cases from Cluster PUI Sivagangga (close contact to index case) and also a case from Cluster Ulu Tiram (i.e. individual from the Philippines)," Noor Hisham Abdullah, health chief said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Dr Hisham said so far these two clusters have been found to be quite controlled by the results of various fast-paced public health control actions in the field.

"This test is an early test and there are several follow-up tests in progress to test several other cases, including index cases for both these clusters. So, this means that people need to be aware and be more careful because the COVID-19 virus with this D614G mutation has been proven to be detected in Malaysia," said Dr Hisham.

According to him, it is found to be "10 times easier to infect other individuals and spread easily if spread by the individual `super spreader`."

"The latest COVID-19 situation is found still controlled and KKM and other agencies are still working to stem COVID-19. Community cooperation is very much needed so that we can decide the contagion of COVID-19 infection from any kind of mutation," he said.

Meanwhile, the total number of COVID-19 cases have increased to 2,17,06,031 across the world and the death count has gone up to 7,75,926, as per the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.