Malaysia Finds Two Vaccinated Students Infected With Delta AY.4.2 Sub-Variant Returning From UK Only After Second Test Came Out Positive During Quarantine!
Malaysia COVID-19 News: Malaysian health authorities in the last 24 hours confirmed that the first two AY.4.2 Delta subvariant cases have been detected in Malaysia.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham in a media statement said the AY.4.2, which is also known as the Delta Plus variant, was detected from two Malaysian students who returned from the United Kingdom (UK) on Oct 2.
He said, "The two Malaysians arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Oct 2 and their first RT-PCR results were negative. However, their second test taken on Oct 7 during the quarantine period came back positive. Results of the full genome sequencing conducted by UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI-UKM) was released on Oct 30.”
Sources at the Ministry said that the two students had been vaccinated while in UK but fortunately Malaysia’s strict rules which also require all those vaccinated especially from countries having high infection rates to still quarantine helped to pick these two infected individuals before they started spreading it around locally.
The case always represents a lesson for certain stupid countries that are so desperate for the tourist dollar that they are willing to sacrifice the safety of their citizens by allowing those vaccinated from other countries to not have to quarantine or in some cases only base their judgements on one initial COVID-19 test upon arrival.
Dr Hisham said the vaccines currently used were still effective against AY.4.2 variant but measures such as quarantine and testing could help to reduce the risk of transmission of this variant in Malaysia, particularly at international entry points.
Dr Hisham added that the Health Ministry would continue to monitor and to find out whether the Delta sub-variant has been spread in the community.
As of end of October, AY.4.2 variant, made up 10 per cent of full genome sequencing conducted in the UK.
The British Health Security Agency has classified AY.4.2 variant, that has two additional genetic mutations, Y145H and A222V, as Variant Under Investigation (VUI) on Oct 20.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-experts-say-that-new-delta-sub-variants-are-going-to-fuel-the-winter-surges-yet-another-emerged-delta-sub-variant-ay-4-2-is-striking-fears-
In Malaysia, as of today, another 90 Delta cases were detected, 44 by the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) and 46 by the UMBI-UKM.
According to
Malaysia COVID-19 News, most of the cases were reported in Johor and Sabah. Both the states reported 27 cases, followed by Negri Sembilan and Selangor (10 each), Kuala Lumpur (nine), Pahang (four), Kelantan, Melaka and Perlis (one each).
These two AY.4.2 cases were detected in Negri Sembilan.
Dr Hisham said this has brought the total of Variant of Concern (VOC) and Variant of Interest (VOI) cases to 3,782.
Of the total, 3,762 are VOC cases comprising 3
,522 Delta cases, Beta (226) and Alpha (14). The remaining 20 are VOI comprising 13 Theta variant cases, Kappa (four) and Eta (three).
The Delta AY.4.2 sub-variant is thought to be more transmissible than the Delta variant by between 15 to 18 percent and is also immune evasive and also replicates faster, causing higher viral loads and faster progression of disease severity.
More stringent screenings are required by governments from South-East Asian countries especially travelers coming from UK to prevent the new AY.4.2 sub-variant from becoming dominant in circulation in the Asean zone.
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