New COVID strain found in Malaysia to be 10 times more infectious

Malaysia:  Malaysia has detected a strain of the new corona virus that has been found to be 10 times more infectious as reported by Bloomberg.

The number of new cases found in Malaysia has been picking up; there were 26 new cases on Saturday adding to which 25 more cases were reported on Sunday.

The mutation, earlier seen in other parts of the world and called D614G, was found in at least three of the 45 cases in a cluster that started from a restaurant owner returning from India and breaching his 14-day home quarantine. The man has since been sentenced to five months in prison and fined. The strain was also found in another cluster involving people returning from the Philippines.

As reported by Bloomberg, Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said, “The strain could mean that existing studies on vaccines may be incomplete or ineffective against the mutation.”

The mutation has become the predominant variant in Europe and the U.S., with the World Health Organization saying there’s no evidence the strain leads to a more severe disease.

“This ten times more infectious virus is unlikely to have a major impact on the efficacy of vaccines currently being developed,” a Paper published in the Cell Press reported.

“People need to be wary and take greater precautions because this strain has now been found in Malaysia,” Noor Hisham wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. “The people’s cooperation is very needed so that we can together break the chain of infection from any mutation.”