KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has detected another 22 Covid-19 variants of concern (VOC) in the country.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the cases were detected through genome sequencing conducted between June 11 and 19.
He said of the 22 new cases of VOCs, 14 involved the Beta variant (B.1.351), while the remaining eight were of the Delta variant (B.1.617.2).
Dr Noor Hisham said the Beta variant cases were reported in Selangor, Sabah and Terengganu with three cases each, Kedah (two cases), and one case each in Perak, Johor and Kelantan.
"The Delta variant cases were identified in Johor, Labuan and Negri Sembilan with two cases each, and one case each in Perlis and Penang," he said in a statement today.
Dr Noor Hisham said as of June 19, the cumulative number of cases infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus categorised as VOCs and variants of interest (VOIs) stood at 183 cases.
He said of the total detected, 167 cases were VOCs and 16 cases were VOIs.
The VOCs reported involved 137 cases of Beta variant (B.1.351) (all local transmissions); 21 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) (12 cases were local transmissions and nine imported infections), and nine Alpha variants (B.1.1.7) (four local transmissions and five imported infections).
"The VOIs reported involved 12 cases of Theta (P.3) variant (local transmissions), three cases of Eta variant (B.1.525) (imported infections), and one case of Kappa variant (B.1.617.1) (imported infection)."
Dr Noor Hisham said the health ministry will continue to strengthen infectious disease control activities including genomic surveillance for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, increase Covid-19 screening tests, conduct more contact tracing and case isolation as well as other public health measures to curb the spread of these variants in the community.
He advised the public to register themselves and family members for vaccination, in an effort to help the country achieve herd immunity.