IHCM director Prof David Perera said all seven cases were detected in Kuching district. The earliest case we sequenced tested positive by RT-PCR on April 26 and the most recent case tested positive on May 6, he said in a statement on Thursday (May 20).
This is the first instance of the South African variant of concern being reported in Sarawak.
Prof Perera also said IHCM had detected additional cases of the P3 variant of interest in Samarahan and Sibu.
The P3 or B.1.1.28.3 variant, which was first reported in the Philippines in March this year, is characterised by a double mutation shared with the South African and UK (B.1.1.7) variants.
A report prepared by IHCM director Prof David Perera
(pic) indicated that the P3 variant was detected in eight out of 484 samples analysed in its genomic surveillance study. This P3 variant is characterised by two key mutations, the E484K mutation shared with the B.1.351 variant (South African variant) and the N501Y mutation shared with the B.1.1.7 variant (UK variant). These mutations have been associated with immune escape from both vaccine-induced and natural infection protection, and greater transmissibility, Prof Perera said in a statement on Friday (April 30).
Designated a variant of interest, the P3 variant was first reported in the Philippines in March and was recently identified in imported cases in Britain.
Covid-19: Philippine variant detected in Sarawak
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The Philippine variant, or the P.3 variant, of the Covid-19 virus has been detected in Sarawak, according to the Sarawak Covid-19 Advisory Group (Scovag).
The group in a statement today said the variant was detected by the Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) in its genome sequencing analysis last week.
IHCM director Prof David Perera said.
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