KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Health (MOH) detected 134 new cases involving variants of concern (VOC) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from Oct 7 to 19, says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said they comprised 132 Delta variant cases (B.1.617.2) and two Beta variant cases (B.1.351), bringing the total number of VOC cases in the country to 2,366.

He said the new development took the cumulative number of cases for the Delta variant detected to 2,128 cases, and the Beta variant to 224 cases.

"Meanwhile, the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) identified 37 cases, 35 involving the Delta variant and two Beta variant cases," he said via a post on Facebook today.

Dr Noor Hisham said the three states which recorded the highest number of new Delta variant cases were Johor with 43, followed by Negeri Sembilan (18) and Melaka (15).

However, he said no new cases involving variants of interest (VOI) were detected during the same period.

For the record, another VOC that has been detected in Malaysia is the Alpha variant, with a total of 14 cases so far, while VOI cases involve 13 cases of the Theta variant; Kappa variant (four cases) and Eta variant (three cases).

-- BERNAMA