New Delhi/Kuala lumpur: A new strain of the novel coronavirus called ‘D614G’, deemed 10 times more infectious, has been detected in Malaysia, Director General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
According to a News18 report, the mutation has been spotted in three cases from a cluster which started when a restaurant owner and permanent resident returned to the country from India. It has also been detected in another cluster case which started with returnees from the Philippines.
“So far these two clusters are controlled due to the fast-paced public health control actions on the field. This test is an early test. There are several follow-up tests in progress to for many other cases. These include index cases for both these clusters,” Abdullah was quoted as saying by News18.
Also, he added that the strain could mean that existing studies on vaccines might be incomplete or ineffective against the mutation. People needed to be more aware and careful in the country as the mutation infects other individuals 10 times more and spreads more easily by an individual ‘super spreader’.
This mutation has now become the predominant variant in Europe and the US. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that there there is no evidence that the strain leads to a more severe disease. According to a paper in biomedical journal Cell Press, the mutation may not have a major impact on the efficacy of vaccines which are presently being developed.
Also, vaccine candidates are being developed in various countries and trials are underway.
