COVID variants BA.5.2 detected in Malaysia since March 16, BF.2 since Aug 21 last year

KUALA LUMPUR: Two Omicron variants of COVID-19, namely BA.5.2 and BF.7, which made up about 80 per cent of the variants currently infecting China, have been detected in Malaysia since March 16 and Aug 21 last year, respectively.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the first case of BF.7 detected on Aug 21 was a case of local infection, while the second on Sept 6 was a case of imported infection from Turkiye, and the third on Oct 7 was another case of local infection.

"At the global level, for the BA.5.2 variant, the peak transmission period was around September-October 2022, with most cases detected in countries such as South Africa, England, China and the United States.

"For the BF.7 variant, the peak of transmission was in October 2022 and were mostly detected in countries like Belgium, England, Denmark and China," he said in a posting on Facebook.

Yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said as of Dec 31 last year, there were 4,148 cases of BA.5.2 variant and three cases of BF.7 variant infections in the country.

-- BERNAMA