KUALA LUMPUR: The new Covid-19 strain reported in the United Kingdom has not been detected in Malaysia, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) is keeping a lookout for the variant by continuously performing whole genome sequencing.
"The Health Ministry will continue to be vigilant with various measures already put in place to prevent the spread of the new variant to Malaysia," he said in a Facebook post today.
British scientists had, on Dec 19, come to an early conclusion that the virus had mutated to change the structure of the so-called "spike protein" on its surface, subsequently increasing the protein's ability to bind to human cell and making it more infectious.
Dr Noor Hisham said the new variant, dubbed SARS-CoV-2 VUI-202012/01, was observed to have a 70 per cent increase in transmissibility rate, and a three-fold increase in cases in the 14-day notification period.
"The new variant has new mutations in the spike protein, including amino acid changes as well as three amino acids deletions."
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said the IMR, the National Institutes of Health and the ministry had conducted analysis on more than 120 SARS-CoV-2 full genome sequences from clinical samples from the first wave until the recent third wave of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia.
He said the analysis focused on timely monitoring of all gene mutations, particularly in the spike protein which plays a key role in the receptor recognition and cell membrane fusion process.
"Apart from the most prominent spike mutation D614G, we are now seeing another variant, A701V, which was first detected in the Benteng Lahad Datu (Benteng LD) cluster and had subsequently spread to almost all clusters including in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah (post Benteng LD clusters)."
On the A701V mutation, Dr Noor Hisham said this variant was first found among 22 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from the Benteng LD clusters.
Among the third wave clusters that had been sequenced are the Teratai, Benteng LD (third generation), Damanlela construction site, Perigi, Selasih, Saguking, Tenaga, Kasih, Bah Ketil, Bukit, and Kaya clusters.
"The prevalence of A701V among cases in the third wave is 85 per cent, whereas D614G is 100 per cent.
"The A701V is now co-circulating with D614G in conjunction with the tremendous increase of cases during the third wave.
He said the A701V mutation was also reported in South Africa, Australia, the Netherlands, and England, at about the same time as Malaysia.
"The role of this mutation is yet to be determined. As most clusters have this mutation, the presence of mutation A701V may have given the virus an added advantage in becoming the dominant strain, suggesting better transmissibility," added Dr Noor Hisham.