Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the new A701B mutation was detected after the ministry conducted tests on 60 samples from the Benteng LD cluster in Sabah.

“We have identified the A701B mutation but are not sure of the clinical impact such as the infectivity rate of the mutation and the aggressiveness of the virus (of the mutated strain).

“The Covid-19 virus is always mutating, we need to know what the virus’ impact on health will be,” he said during the daily media conference on Covid-19 development here today.

He said new mutations were also detected in several countries, including South Africa, Australia, Netherlands and Singapore.

On Monday, Noor Hisham said a new variant, with the scientific name of VUI 202012/01, had spread fast throughout the United Kingdom with a high infection rate.

Elaborating, he said the ministry had previously identified the existence of the D614G mutation in Kedah involving the Sivagangga cluster as well as in Johor and Sabah.

“The D614G mutation could infect other individuals 10 times easier,” he said, adding that the ministry would monitor existing mutations to identify their effect on the vaccine’s effectiveness.

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