Are you familiar with the phrase, “The British are coming”?
You can go find out its origin for yourself, but the phrase is used as warning that enemies are near and a battle is about to begin - a statement of impending doom.
Now, we’re not saying this has any correlation with what the Health Ministry (MOH) confirmed yesterday (January 11th), but it’s scary to know the new variant of COVID-19 which emerged in the UK has reached Malaysia.
Photo via NL Times
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the highly-infectious variant dubbed “UK B.1.1.7” was identified from a sample taken from a traveller who had been to the UK in December 2020.
The scary part is that this mutation, which was first identified in the UK last September, doesn’t cause severe symptoms, but it can spread faster and easier!
However, Dr Noor Hisham said that no local transmission of the variant has yet been identified in Malaysia.
“The traveller tested positive on December 28th, 2020 and has been isolated for further treatment. Since October 2020, the ministry has monitored all travellers who have returned from countries that have reported cases of this mutated variant, including from the UK, Netherlands, Singapore, Turkey, Philippines and India. As of January 11th, there has been no outbreak in the country linked to the UK B117 variant,” he said.
It’s understood that the UK B117 variant is up to 70% more infectious than other previously identified variants, and prompted over 40 countries to suspend travel from Britain to curb the transmission of the new strain.
Stay safe, guys!
by Kyle Roshen Jacob
