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Khairy: ‘High Possibility’ Omicron Already In The Community

The Health Ministry today cautioned that there is a “high possibility” that the more transmissible Omicron Covid-19 variant is already in the community amid an increasing number of cases detected in the country.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the ministry has thus far detected another 49 Covid-19 positive cases infected with the Omicron variant of concern (VOC) with one of them being suspected to be through local transmission.

“Institute of Medical Research (IMR) has conducted PCR Genotyping Assay on 145 samples of Covid-19 positive cases among travellers from Dec 15 to Dec 21.

“Of these, 60 samples were identified as presumptive Omicron. On Dec 24, 45 of these 60 presumptive samples were confirmed Omicron through genome sequencing conducted by IMR.

“Meanwhile, the Institute of Health and Community Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (IHCM-UNIMAS) has detected a total of four cases of Omicron variant,” he said at a press conference here today.

He said of the 49 Omicron cases, the bulk of them were travellers coming into the country from Saudi Arabia (30 cases), followed by five from the United Kingdom, four from Qatar, three from the United States, two from Nigeria, one each from Turkey, Italy, UAE and Ghana, and the one suspected local transmission case, which involved a 38-year-old Chinese national.

The sample result returned Covid-19 positive and the patient was admitted to a Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Center (PKRC) at the Sarawak General Hospital on Dec 20, he said.

“His sample was sent to IHCM for genomic sequencing test and was confirmed positive for Omicron variant on Dec 23. The case has no history of travel abroad in these three years.

“The cause of the infection has yet to be identified and investigations are still ongoing by the Kuching Divisional Health Office.

“The patient has also been fully vaccinated and his condition is stable. A total of two contacts have been identified, namely, a vehicle driver and another social contact who have been instructed to observe a 14-day quarantine at a quarantine station and the first sample test result for both of them returned Covid-19 negative.”

Following the risk of transmission of Omicron variants worldwide as well as the detection of the variant in Malaysia, Khairy said the ministry together with other agencies have taken action to strengthen enforcement and controls at the country’s international gateways as well beef up screening of high-risk groups.

Further, he said effective Dec 22, the Sarawak state government has also strengthened international gateway controls by requiring all travellers from abroad to be quarantined at Malaysia’s First Point of Entry before being allowed to enter Sarawak or continue their journey to their next destination.

“They must also have a negative RT-PCR result before being released from quarantine.”

Khairy said while the spread of Omicron is worrying, all the 49 Omicron cases identified were Category 1 and 2 patients with no severe symptoms.

“This, however, shows two things. One is that the number of incoming Omicron cases is on the rise, especially from Saudi Arabia (via flights from Jeddah).

“Secondly, there are high chances that the variant is already present in our community because an individual who has not travelled out of Malaysia has been infected in Sarawak.

“We, therefore, expect a spike in Covid-19 positive cases. We still do not know if Omicron is more severe than the Delta variant although some studies in the UK suggest that it is only more transmissible and not as dangerous.

“But we do not know what to expect, as in if a spike in Omicron infections will or will not lead to increased hospitalisation rates because the epidemiology in the UK and Malaysia is different. The ministry will however take the necessary precautionary steps,” he added. – NST ONLINE

BacalahMalaysia Team

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