Family in M’sia Infected with COVID-19 Delta Variant Despite Not Leaving the Home Since April

By
Sabrina Chua
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The COVID-19 situation in Malaysia hasn’t been getting any better, with a record-high of 11,618 new cases reported on Wednesday, 14 July, bringing their total tally to 867,567 so far.

As an attempt to curb the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant, several states and localities are now under an enhanced movement control order whereby residents are only allowed to leave their homes to buy essential items or attend to medical matters. However, it seems that even doing so may not guarantee that you won’t be infected.

One family has not left their home for unnecessary matters since April this year, and yet they found out that they were infected with the COVID-19 Delta variant after testing positive for it last week.

Family in M’sia Infected with COVID-19 Delta Variant Despite Not Leaving the Home Since April

36-year old Madam Noriah Bakar, her husband, and their two sons have mostly isolated themselves in their own home in Subang Jaya, in the state of Selangor, since April after the COVID-19 situation in Malaysia worsened.

The homemaker shared that her husband had only left the house once to collect documents from work, and that she only left the house twice three weeks ago to get vaccinated and to buy bread.

She also shared, “We rely heavily on online services for groceries despite it costing a lot of money, so we can’t think of what we did wrong.”

Despite staying home most of the time and leaving the house a total of three times for essential matters, the four of them still tested positive for the COVID-19 Delta variant last week.

Delta Variant Is Highly Infectious

Noor Hisham Abdullah, the health chief of Malaysia, warned the public on Tuesday, 13 July, that the number of new cases could increase over the next 14 days as the highly infectious Delta variant has been detected in almost every state.

According to the World Health Organisation, the Delta variant which was first detected in India is said to be 55% more contagious than the Alpha variant first detected in Britain, which itself is 50% more contagious than the first variant found in Wuhan, China.

While the original Wuhan variant had an R0 (R-naught) value or the average number of new infections generated by each COVID-19 case of 2.2 to 3, the R0 value of the Delta variant is 5 to 8.

This means that if 100 people are infected with the variant, they can easily infect 800 more people in a very short period of time, especially since the variant can spread faster via airborne transmission.

When asked for his opinion, Malaysia’s COVID-19 Epidemiological Analysis and Strategies Task Force chairman, Professor Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud said, “It is likely that B.1.617.2 (Delta) will displace other variants as what has happened in other parts of the world, and that is a cause for great concern.”

He also shared that the reasons why there was a surge in cases in Malaysia include a combination of:

  • New strains being detected;
  • Widespread community transmission; and
  • Airborne spread due to:
    • poor ventilation
    • poor adherence to health protocols as many were starting to get sick and tired of the pandemic

“The Only Real Long-Term Preventive Strategy Is Vaccination”

So what exactly can we do to prevent ourselves from getting infected?

Dr Bulbiga only had one thing to say, and it was, “the only real long-term preventive strategy is vaccination.”

According to him, the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty and AstraZeneca vaccines are able to counter the Delta and Beta variants after 2 doses. However, for those who have only taken 1 dose so far, they are not optimally protected from the variants.

With this information in mind, medical experts have tried to think of ways for the government to increase the rates of vaccinations. One of which is to decrease the interval between doses for the Astra Zeneca vaccine from nine weeks to just four weeks. Another method would be to take a mixture of vaccines.

Dr Bulbiga said, “I would strongly suggest that the vaccination rate be stepped up especially in high-risk areas to make sure that all eligible and vulnerable persons are vaccinated as quickly as possible. Selangor’s vaccination rate is being massively ramped up but its two-dose coverage still lags behind Sarawak’s.”

He also pointed out that Sarawak has been “doing a pretty decent job of vaccinating its people despite the massive logistical challenges it faces”.

As of now, only about 50.2% of Malaysia’s population has received their first jab, while only about 24.1% of Selangor’s population has been vaccinated with the first dose.

Hopefully, the rate of vaccinations will continue to increase such that more people are protected from the highly infectious variant, and that we will see a drop in the number of cases in Malaysia soon.

Featured Image: cyangpix/ shutterstock.com

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Sabrina Chua
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