KUALA LUMPUR: A mutation of this COVID-19 virus that is"10 times" more infectious was detected in Malaysia.

The state's Health Ministry director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said the neighborhood needed to be careful, after a D614G mutation of the novel coronavirus was discovered.

"It's is found to be 10 times easier to infect different people and easier to spread, if spread by'super spreader' individuals," Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Sunday (Aug 16).

The mutation was detected by the Malaysian Institute for Medical Research, because of culture and isolation tests on three instances from the nation's Sivagangga audience and one case from the Ulu Tiram cluster.

"So far, these two clusters have been found to be under control as a consequence of the rapid public health management actions," explained Dr Noor Hisham. "This first test and many follow-up evaluations are being conducted to examine several different cases, including for the index case for both clusters"

He included that the D614G mutation was detected by scientists in July, also is likely to induce current vaccine research to be faulty or ineffective towards this mutation.

Dr Noor Hisham advised the public to continue to apply preventive measures and general health management by taking steps involving physical distancing, self-hygiene practices and wearing face masks.

"Public cooperation is needed so that we can collectively break the string of the COVID-19 infection from all types of mutations," he added.

Malaysia reported 25 brand new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, nine of which were local broadcasts while 16 were imported.

In another announcement, Dr Noor Hisham said this brings the cumulative total of COVID-19 instances in Malaysia to 9,200, together with 216 active cases.

He said the nine nearby transmissions included seven Malaysians, one of whom had been a pre-surgery screening instance in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Six cases were from the Tawar bunch in Baling, Kedah, five of which have been in Kedah and yet another in Penang.

"Two more local infections were detected among non-Malaysians at Kuala Lumpur where both cases were eatery workers after random screenings were performed at their workplaces," Dr Noor Hisham said.
"News about the close of this eatery has gone viral about social media and this has generated some anxiety among clients," he added.

"The district health office will conduct active case detection at which further investigations and samplings will be carried out. The store itself has been closed down temporarily for disinfection and sanitisation."

He said 28 more instances had recovered from COVID-19, carrying the cumulative amount of recoveries into 8,859, or 96.3 percent of the total.
"To date, there are just seven COVID-19 positive cases from the intensive care unit, of which two need ventilator support," he explained.

No fatalities were reported Sunday, together with the death toll staying at 125 cases.

Elaborating on the Tawar bunch, Dr Noor Hisham stated that with all the new cases reported overnight, there were now 39 cases from this cluster.

"As much as noon now, some 899 individuals are screened from this cluster, of which 727 were screened in Kedah with 35 testing positive for COVID-19, 643 analyzed negative and 49 longer are awaiting outcomes.

"Still another 164 more were screened in Penang and from those, four individuals tested positive, 155 tested negative and five more are pending results.

"Back in Perak, eight were screened with five analyzing negative and three more awaiting consequences," he explained.

Active case detection and contact screenings are ongoing for this cluster, he added.

Malaysia's Health Ministry said on Twitter three more clusters were shut - the Kuala Lumpur restaurant bunch as well as the Ramnad and Kuching Jetty clusters, bringing the amount of planets that are closed into 78.