Kelantan’s spike in infections, deaths may be due to Beta variant, says state health director

The significant increase in number of positive cases and deaths related to Covid-19 in Kelantan this year is believed to be due to the spread of Beta variant which was first detected in South Africa.

Kelantan state health department director Dr Zaini Hussin said this followed the test results of 23 samples taken from several clusters that had been sent for genome sequencing.

“We do not send all positive cases (for genome sequencing), but only take samples from several clusters in the state. It is possible that the majority of cases in Kelantan are of the Beta variant.

“It spreads so quickly, and the average number of deaths has also increased between four and six cases a day, bringing the total fatalities to 175 this year compared to only seven last year.

“This variant may have been in the community in Kelantan,” he told reporters today.

Yesterday, Kelantan recorded 245 new cases, taking its total number of active cases to 3,837.

Meanwhile, Zaini said 12% of the 1.2 million people in Kelantan had received their first and second vaccine doses.

“The current daily vaccination capacity is at about 6,000 to 8,000 doses. We can increase the capacity to between 14,000 and 32,000 a day in July, when a large quantity of vaccine is expected to arrive.”