12 Januari 2021 -- IMR has received 968 samples from individuals who had travel history to UK since October 2020. From this, 13 cases were identified positive, consisting 8 in December 2020, 2 in November 2020 and 2 in October 2020 plus 1 in January 2021.

• Based on the Real-Time RT-PCR Results one of these cases met the cut off for CT value to be sequenced directly from original specimen. The remaining 12 cases had high CT value indicating low viral load, thus was not chosen for sequencing.
• Additionally, 9 more positive cases of those who had travel history to countries that have reported the UK strain (Netherlands, Singapore, Turkey, Philippines, India) and 14 cases from recent local clusters were also included for sequencing. In total 24 recent cases were attempted for sequencing.
• Full genome sequencing work begun on 5th January 2021. On 11th Jan 2021, one UK B.1.1.7 strain was successfully sequenced and identified from a total of 24 recent COVID-19 cases.
• The strain infected a 22 year old male Malaysian who had recent travel history to UK
• Variant analysis indicated the presence of all the reported mutations corresponding to the UK B.1.1.7 strain. This includes:
  (i) S gene (deletion 69-70, deletion 144, N501Y, A570D, D614G, P681H, T716I, S982A, D1118H)
  (ii) ORF1ab gene (T1001I, A1708D, I2230T)
  (iii) ORF8 gene (Q27*, R52I, Y73CN)
  (iv) N gene (D3L, S235F)
  (v) Synonymous nucleotide changes (C913T, C5986T, C14676T, C15279T, T16176C)

Rujuk : FB Ketua Pengarah Kesihatan KKM