Kuala Lumpur: The Health Ministry said they have found another 58 cases of the Covid-19 Omicron variant in Malaysia with four of these cases in Kedah.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 54 were import cases while four were local infections.
Of the 54 import cases, 39 were from Saudi Arabia, seven from UAE, four from the United Kingdom, two from Nigeria and one from Kazakhstan and France.
The four local cases were believed to have been infected by a person returning from umrah who was positive for Omicron.
“This brings the total number of Omicron cases in Malaysia to 122 of which 71 cases (58.2 per cent) were from those performing umrah.
“We also found from our PCR genotyping Assay done on 1,774 positive cases among travellers who arrived in Malaysia between 1-31 December, a total of 1,220 (68.8 per cent) showed presumptive signs of the Omicron variant,” Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement today.
“From the 1,220 presumptive Omicron variants, 928 (76.1 per cent) involved travellers from Saudi Arabia.”
In addition four cases of the Omicron variant were found in Kedah. Dr Noor Hisham said it was due to close contact with someone who returned from Saudi Arabia after performing their Umrah from December 12 until 24.
The individuals were exposed on December 13 and were found to be in Category 2 on December 17. They are currently being treated at Hospital Sungai Abdul Halim in Sungai Petani, Kedah.
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