As the world is grappling with increasing COVID-19 cases daily, Malaysia has now detected a new coronavirus strain and it has been found to be 10 times more infectious.
As per the report by Bloomberg, the mutation named D614G was found in at least three of the 45 cases in a cluster that started from a restaurant owner who returned from India. The strain was also reportedly found in another cluster involving people returning from the Philippines.
Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah has said that the existing vaccine studies can be incomplete or ineffective against this mutation (D614G). “People need to be aware and be more careful because the COVID-19 virus with D614G mutation has been detected in Malaysia," he wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.
D1614G mutation:
The D1614G mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus) is rising worldwide. "This mutation changes the amino acid at position 614, from D (aspartic acid) to G (glycine) — so, D-614-G. The initial D614 is now the G614 variant," explained a neurobiologist. He further said that the G614 variant may be more infectious, but not any deadlier than D614.
For the uninitiated, the original COVID-19 strain in China is dubbed D614, while the mutated version found in the United Kingdom, Italy and North America by May is dubbed G614.
Meanwhile, Malaysian epidemiologist Professor Datuk Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud, said it is yet to be proven that the presence of the D614G mutant variant would affect the severity of COVID-19 in the country. He believed it should not have much effect on public health measures for now, a report said.
Another epidemiologist Dr Sanjay Rampal, noted that the D614G variant is highly infectious, however, its preventive measures remained the same, he said.
"The basic pillars of prevention and control of COVID-19 remain the same, such as border control, movement restriction, hand and respiratory hygiene, physical distancing and use of Personal Protection Equipment," Rampal said. "We have plenty of healthcare capacity to combat the virus," he added.
