KUCHING: Another 76 cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant have been detected in Sarawak, says the Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

       IHCM director Prof Dr David Perera said samples from positive cases were tested between June 7 and July 13 as part of the institute's ongoing tracking and surveillance of Covid-19 virus variants circulating in the state.

       He said 52 of the new Delta cases were detected in Kuching.

       "They were identified in samples taken from Hospital Sentosa, Satok police station and multiple other locations in Kuching," he said in a statement on Wednesday (July 21).

       Dr Perera said 11 cases were detected in Serian, five in Sri Aman, three in Samarahan and one each in Sibu, Miri and Betong.

       "We also detected one case each under the Import A and Import B categories," he said, referring to imported cases from overseas and from other parts of Malaysia respectively.

       The first Delta variant case was detected in Sarawak on June 18 while 16 more cases were detected as of July 4, all in Kuching.