KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has confirmed another two cases of the Covid-19 Omicron variant.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said this brings the total number of Covid-19 Omicron variant cases detected in the country to 64 as of Dec 31.
"63 of the cases involved travellers and one is a suspected local infection.
"Of the 64 Omicron cases, a total 32 cases (50 per cent) were detected among umrah pilgrims," he said during a press conference here today.
The Institute of Medical Research (IMR) has conducted PCR Genotyping Assay testing on 1,077 samples of Covid-19 positive cases identified among travellers from Dec 21 to Dec 29, 2021, he said.
A total 966 of them were indicated as presumptive Omicron variants and are now awaiting results of the whole genome sequencing (WGS).
"Of the 966 samples, 750 or 77.6 per cent involved samples from travellers arriving from Saudi Arabia."
Khairy said up until Dec 30, 2021 there were nine clusters involving umrah pilgrims where five of the clusters involved index cases who were confirmed Covid-19 positive with the Omicron variant.
He said one other cluster involved the Omicron presumptive index case, pending WGS results, while three other clusters concerned Covid-19 positive index cases that were not Omicron variants, but most probably involved the Delta variant.
He said large-scale gatherings involving pilgrims from various countries while in Saudi Arabia exposed these pilgrims to a high risk of contracting Covid-19, including the Omicron variant.
"This situation makes it difficult for pilgrims to comply with the Umrah SOPs set by the Malaysian government.
"Umrah pilgrims may also have been infected while in Saudi Arabia but were still in the incubation period of the infection causing the screening test before returning to Malaysia to show a negative result.
"The large number of Malaysian umrah arrivals which stands at about 800 to 1,000 a day (using four special flights) further increases the risk of importing Covid-19 cases and Omicron variants into the country."
Khairy said most of the pilgrims who return from performing umrah have applied to undergo quarantine at home or residence for a period of seven days.
However, non-compliance with the home quarantine standard operating procedures (SOPs) among Covid-19 positive umrah pilgrims has led to the spread of infection among family members.
"Non-compliance with Home Surveillance Orders (HSO) has also exposed families living under the same roof as well as neighbours and relatives who come to visit, to the virus."
Looking at the situation, Khairy said a special discussion was held on Dec 31 with several agencies involved in the management of the umrah pilgrimage; such as the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac), Department of Wakaf, Zakat and Hajj (Jawhar), Transport Ministry (MOT), National Security Council (MKN), National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), Malaysian Immigration Department (JIM), and Umrah and Hajj Travel Agencies' Association (Papuh).
This, he said was followed by a Special Quartet Meeting chaired by the Senior Minister of Defence, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, to discuss the proposed postponement of Umrah following the Omicron spread.