KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has recorded Malaysia's second case of the B117 Covid-19 strain.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the strain was found in a Malaysian who had returned from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"The first B117 case in Malaysia was reported on Jan 9. We have since detected another case but the patient was not a returnee from the United Kingdom. (The patient) was from the Middle East," he said during a Covid-19 engagement session with media personnel held online today.
Dr Ravindran Thayan, Institute of Medical Research's (IMR) Head of Virology Unit in the Infectious Diseases Research Centre, said the authorities were conducting heightened and constant surveillance following the emergence of new Covid-19 variants identified.
"The recent case of the B117 variant was detected in a Malaysian who had returned from the UAE after undergoing training.
"We are conducting constant surveillance, especially at the country's entry points and are on the lookout for (B117 and other new variants) from countries with such cases, such as the UK."
Besides that, he said, genome sequencing would be done on samples collected from clusters with large numbers of positive cases.
"We will take their samples and we will engage with private labs as well to perform the tests.
"Besides IMR, universities would also conduct full genomic sequencing of samples taken and the data will be uploaded to an international database.
"We are constantly monitoring for any latest mutations in other countries apart from Malaysia," he added.
On Dec 20, the UK confirmed that a new highly-infectious coronavirus strain (B117) had surfaced in the country. The World Health Organisation (WHO) also said the strain was found in small numbers in Australia, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
This prompted over 40 countries to suspend travel from Britain to curb the transmission of the new strain.
The first case - identified in Malaysia on Jan 9 - was an individual who had tested positive for Covid-19 on Dec 28 and was isolated for further treatment.