Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the AY.4.2 subvariant was detected in two Malaysian students who returned from the UK on Oct 2.

The two arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Their first RT-PCR results were negative but a second test taken on Oct 7 during the quarantine period came back positive, Noor Hisham said.

He said the vaccines currently used were still effective against AY.4.2 variant, and SOP such as quarantine and testing could reduce the risk of transmission of this variant in Malaysia, particularly at international entry points.

The ministry would continue to monitor whether the subvariant had been spread in the community, he said.

The Delta Plus subvariant made up 10% of full genome sequencing conducted in the UK up to October.

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