Couple who returned from umrah is Johor's two earliest cases of Omicron variant
The couple left the country last Dec 4 to perform the umrah and returned to Malaysia via the KLIA on Dec 16, Vidyananthan said. - BERNAMA
JOHOR BAHRU: Johor recorded its two earliest cases of COVID-19 of the Omicron variant involving a couple who returned home from Saudi Arabia, said the State Health and Environment Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan.
He said the couple left the country last Dec 4 to perform the umrah and returned to Malaysia via the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Dec 16.
"The PCR Screening Test at the International Gateway conducted on December 16 was found positive on Dec 18. The PCR samples were then sent to the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) for genome sequencing process and the results were later found to be Omicron positive.
"Both cases are undergoing isolation at home and all close contacts to both cases have also been identified and instructed to undergo home quarantine," he said in a statement, today.
With this latest development, Vidyananthan reminded Johoreans returning from abroad, especially those returning from their umrah pilgrimage, to comply with the stipulated quarantine order.
Yesterday, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar said that a total of 49 new cases of Omicron variants had been detected in the country as of last Friday.
Thirty of the cases involved Malaysians who arrived from Saudi Arabia from Dec 13 to Dec 17, while the remaining cases were arrivals from the United Kingdom, Qatar, United States, Nigeria, Turkey, Italy, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates.
-- BERNAMA
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