Covid-19: Melaka health authorities investigating how man contracted Delta variant

MELAKA: Health authorities here are investigating how a man with no interstate or overseas travel history in recent years became the first person in the state to be infected with the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) of Covid-19.

Melaka Health and Anti-Drug Committee chairman Datuk Rahmad Mariman said the man, who works at a company in Taman Merdeka here, also has no record of previously being in close contact with anyone who tested positive for Covid-19.

"The first case involving the Delta variant was detected at Bukit Godek in Semabok," he said when contacted Friday (July 2).

The man, Rahmad said, had travelled from his home in Kampung Bukit Godek to his workplace in Taman Merdeka, about 12km away, recently.

Rahmad confirmed a viral message that the man had also attended an engagement ceremony on May 31 in Kampung Bukit Godek.

He added that investigations were being carried out to determine the source of infection.

The emergence of the Delta variant in Melaka was detected during sampling between June 23 and June 30 and was announced by Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on Thursday (July 1).

Rahmad said he did not rule out the possibility that the Kampung Bukit Godek case is a sporadic Covid-19 case.

Sporadic cases are detected within a community but cannot be linked to any existing cluster of infections.