Sivagangga, Tawar clusters may have common origin

COVID-19 | Genomic sequencing has revealed that the Tawar and Sivagangga Covid-19 clusters are likely to have a common source of infection.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said analysis has shown that virus samples from the two clusters not only carried the D614G mutation, the samples were also part of the same clade.

“This suggests there is a big possibility that the Tawar cluster and Sivagangga cluster have the same origin. However, further investigations are still underway,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

The D614G mutation is believed by some experts to increase the infectivity of the virus that causes Covid-19.

A "clade" is a biological term akin to a branch on the family tree where all members of a population share a common ancestor.

Noor Hisham said the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) had performed the analysis on the Tawar cluster due to the rapid growth of the cluster across several states.

The IMR had taken 14 samples of the virus from Tawar cluster patients for full genome sequencing and managed to obtain the genomic sequences from four of the samples.

“It is found that the virus has the D614G mutation.

“The virus from the Tawar cluster (four samples) has been compared to the virus from the Sivagangga cluster (three samples).

“The results show that the seven virus (samples) are from the same clade,” Noor Hisham added.

Investigating link between clusters

The top official later said that the ministry was investigating if there was a definite link between the two clusters, both found in Kedah.

“From the genomic sequencing, we managed to find that the mutation in the Tawar cluster and the Sivagangga cluster is the same.

“But we have not found the epidemiological link. Now we need to investigate ( to find) which patient has a link to the Sivagangga group,” he said when asked.

Three localities in Amanjaya, Kedah have since been placed under an enhanced movement control order (MCO) as a result of the Tawar cluster.

They are Melor, Kenanga and Mawar.

Noor Hisham said today that this public health intervention was warranted because cases had been found in different localities.

“So now we need to focus on this group, the Tawar cluster. Some of the issues we raised here (about the cluster) are that it is not in one confined locality,” he said.

The Tawar cluster has registered a total of 73 cases thus far, 21 of them children aged 18 and under.

No new cases were reported in the past 24 hours. 

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