Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has revealed today (25 December) that currently there is a total of 62 Covid-19 Omicron variant cases in Malaysia. 61 cases were imported infections while one case is suspected of local transmission.
The suspected local infection was discovered in Sarawak involving a 38-year-old Chinese national who has been working in the state for three years and has no history of travelling abroad within that three years. Khairy Jamaluddin explained, as quoted by The Star,
“He underwent the Covid-19 test on 18 December after suffering from a fever and cough since December 13. The sample tested positive for Covid-19 and he was admitted to the Sarawak General Hospital on Monday (Dec 20). Case samples were sent to IHCM (Institute of Health and Community Medicine) at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) for genomic sequencing test and were confirmed positive for the Omicron variant on Thursday (Dec 23).”
At the moment, the cause of infection has yet to be identified and investigations are still being done. Thankfully, the patient is fully vaccinated and is currently in a stable condition. Khairy elaborated that the Health Ministry and the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) had conducted a PCR Genotyping Assay test on 145 Covid-19 positive case samples taken from travellers from 15 December to 21 December.
From the 145 samples, 60 showed probabilities of being the Omicron variant and on Dec 24, 45 out of these 60 presumptive samples were confirmed to be Omicron. The Institute of Health and Community Medicine at UNIMAS also detected another four cases of the Omicron variant. Out of the total 49 new cases, 30 were imported infections from Saudi Arabia from travellers who returned to Malaysia after performing the Umrah and most of them did not quarantine at home properly.
We would like to advise everyone eligible for their booster shots to please do so. We have to face the reality that we will be living with the virus, so, we need to do what we can to protect ourselves and our loved ones.
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