A lockdown enforced at the epicentre of two Omicron variant clusters has been lifted ahead of schedule.
The enhanced movement control order (EMCO) was imposed on Felda Keratong 5 in Rompin, Pahang, beginning Jan 6 to contain the spread of Covid-19 there, and was meant to be in place until Jan 19.
However, National Security Council director-general Rodzi Md Saad announced last night that the EMCO will be lifted today instead, which is five days early.
The Felda settlement is at the heart of the Keratong 5 Saudi cluster and the Rumah Kedai Keratong 5 Saudi cluster.
According to Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on Jan 11, the two index cases of the Keratong 5 Saudi cluster were confirmed to have the Omicron variant, while the index case of the Rumah Kedai Keratong 5 Saudi cluster is a presumptive Omicron case.
In total, seven confirmed and six presumptive Omicron variant clusters were identified nationwide involving umrah pilgrims.
He said at the time that the Keratong 5 Saudi is the largest umrah cluster, though another cluster originating from Saudi Arabia have since exceeded it in size.
All three index cases in the two clusters were umrah pilgrims who had returned from Saudi Arabia.
Highly transmissible variant
According to data posted on the Health Ministry’s Github repository, the index cases of the Keratong 5 Saudi cluster are two Malaysians who arrived from Saudi Arabia on Dec 22 last year and subsequently tested positive on Dec 26 and 29.
It was identified as a Covid-19 cluster on Dec 29 with a total of 36 cases in Rompin and Mersing (Johor) as of Thursday. The latest case was detected on Jan 6.
Meanwhile, the index case for the Rumah Kedai Keratong 5 Saudi cluster had returned on Dec 29 last year and tested positive on Jan 2.
It was identified as a cluster on the following day with nine cases in Rompin so far. The latest case was detected on Jan 4.
A confirmed Omicron case means the presence of the highly transmissible variant has been detected through whole-genome sequencing, while a presumptive case means there was an S-gene target failure (SGTF) during PCR testing.
SGTF is caused by certain mutations present on the Omicron variant and certain other Covid-19 lineages.
According to Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, nearly all presumptive Omicron cases are confirmed as such after sequencing, while those which could not be confirmed were usually instances where insufficient amounts of the virus were collected during sampling for successful sequencing. - Mkini
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