PanARMENIAN. Net – A more infectious mutation of the new coronavirus was discovered in Indonesia, the Jakarta-based Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology said Sunday as the number of cases in Southeast Asian country increases, Reuters reports.
Indonesia reported 2,858 new infections on Sunday (August 30), according to data from the Ministry of Health, below the previous day’s record of 3,308, but above last month’s daily average. Its total number of cases 172,053, with 7,343 deaths similar to Covid-19.
The “infectious but milder” D614G mutation of the virus was discovered in knowledge of genome sequencing from samples collected through the institute, Deputy Director Herawati Sudoyo told Reuters, adding that additional studies are needed to determine whether this is the recent accumulation of cases.
The strain, which according to the World Health Organization became known in February and circulated in Europe and America, was also discovered in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.
Syahrizal Syarif, epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, warned Indonesians to remain vigilant, as his style suggests that the country could see its workload increase to 500,000 by the end of the year.
“The scenario is seriousArray . . . Local transmission is out of control lately,” Syarif said, adding that the number of infections detected daily could have been much higher if labs had processed more samples in a day.