Putrajaya has decided to cancel further umrah trips to Saudi Arabia amid a surge in infections amongst people returning from that country.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said in the last two weeks of last year, the majority of infections were coming from Saudi Arabia.
He revealed that in the two weeks, a total of 1,161 people returning from Saudi Arabia tested positive for Covid-19 compared to 49 from the UK, 13 from Singapore and eight from Indonesia.
For context, the number of imported Covid-19 cases from Saudi Arabia in the two weeks was more than what was recorded in the rest of 2021.
Khairy said for the whole of 2021, 1,446 Covid-19 cases were detected from Saudi Arabia, 322 from Singapore, 264 from Indonesia and 217 from the UK.
He added that the Omicron variant has also been detected among those returning from Saudi Arabia.
Following these developments, Khairy said a multi-agency meeting was convened, followed by a special quartet meeting chaired by Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.
He said a decision was made to suspend further umrah trips from Jan 8 onwards, and no air tickets for such trips will be sold effectively today.
Home quarantine not an option
Furthermore, it will be compulsory for umrah returnees to isolate at a quarantine centre or hotel for seven days from Jan 3 onwards. Home quarantine will not be an option.
Khairy said the decision was presented to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and later endorsed by the government.
He said a periodical review of the Omicron situation will be conducted to determine when umrah activities will be allowed to resume.
"The suspension of umrah activities is expected to help reduce the risk of the Omicron variant spreading in the country and to slow the increase of Covid-19 cases.
"It is hoped that the move will also give the government the opportunity and space to plan and make detailed preparations before umrah activities resume," he said in a statement.
Pilgrimage activities to Saudi Arabia had resumed on Oct 13 last year.
As of Dec 30 last year, around 11.76 percent of the 11,108 pilgrims who returned tested positive for Covid-19.
To date, there are also 64 confirmed cases from the Omicron variant.
Khairy advised returning pilgrims to abide by the standing operating procedure, failing which legal action will be taken.
Nine umrah clusters
As of Dec 30, the minister announced that nine Covid-19 clusters had been detected among umrah pilgrimage returnees. Five of which involved index cases with the Omicron variant.
Two of these five clusters were located in Pahang, one in Temerloh (five cases) and another spread across Temerloh and Pekan (six cases).
The other three Omicron clusters were detected in Penang (Barat Daya, 10 cases), Johor (Johor Bahru, six cases) and Kedah (Kubang Pasu and Yan, four cases).
Khairy said the index case of a sixth cluster - 18 cases in Sandakan, Sabah - remains classified as a “presumptive Omicron” case pending Whole Genomic Sequencing results.
“It has caused a spread among close contacts but to what extent that has resulted in community spread (this is still being investigated).
“What we are trying to do here especially with the 750 presumptive Omicron (cases) from Saudi (Arabia), the responsible thing is to announce countermeasures so we can slow down Omicron from spreading in Malaysia,” he said.
Three other clusters involving umrah pilgrims do not involve Omicron cases.
Omicron plan
As for how the government is preparing for a possible wave of Omicron cases, Khairy said there was a plan in place but declined to go into details.
“We have heightened alert indicators which we had prepared for the road to endemicity. So that is something that we have operationally available.
“Once it crosses that (threshold), we will have some suggestions that can be deliberated at the ministerial quartet for further measures to ensure we can slow down the spread. So those are already in place,” he said.
He declined to reveal what kind of restrictions are part of the plan but assured that “enhanced measures” were being fine-tuned. - Mkini
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