KJ: 123 new Covid-19 Omicron cases detected, high number of cases from Saudi Arabia returnees

SHAH ALAM -- The Ministry of Health (MOH) has recorded 123 new Covid-19 Omicron cases in the country, with the total tally of the variant of concern at 245 cases thus far, said its Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

Khairy also revealed that a large majority of these cases were primarily from Saudi Arabia.

"From the total number of Omicron cases reported, 157 or 64 per cent were from Umrah pilgrims,'' he said during a press conference today.

This includes 88 out of 123 new Omicron cases reported today, were also Umrah pilgrims.

In the press conference, Khairy also rebuts any assertion that the Ministry of Health is selective in its action by postponing Umrah pilgrimages while other countries are exempted from a travel ban.

Khairy then cited MOH data that indicated that out of 1,842 Covid-19 positive cases, 85 per cent or 1,558 detected at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in the final week of December 2021, were coming from Saudi Arabia.

"This is the data that has been presented to the Cabinet yesterday. This shows that positive cases irrespective of the variants detected in KLIA are travellers are coming from Saudi Arabia, Umrah pilgrims.

"Imported cases of Omicron are mostly coming from Saudi Arabia as well, from Umrah pilgrims. This is the fact. This is why the Ministry of Health has made the decision to only postpone temporarily to slow the advance of the Covid-19 infection especially the Omicron variant,'' he said.

Khairy explains that the ban is put in place for only a month and that a travel ban could be extended to other countries if there is an increase in imported cases.

What is more concerning, Khairy revealed that 17 Omicron cases involved unvaccinated individuals and a thorough investigation will be carried out on the matter.