KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — Malaysia is on high alert following its first case of Omicron, the heavily-mutated Covid-19 variant first detected in South Africa.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today, the case was detected from a sample of a non-Malaysian student from South Africa who arrived in the country via Singapore on November 19.
Speaking to reporters, he said the private university student from Ipoh, Perak, was fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, and had fully complied with the home quarantine order.
To date, the Omicron variant has spread to at least 26 nations including Singapore.
Singapore’s health ministry said, preliminary tests detected the new Omicron variant in two passengers who arrived in the city state on a plane from Johannesburg, South Africa on Dec 1.
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday, it has imposed temporary travel restrictions on travellers from eight countries in a bid to stop the new Omicron variant from spreading to the country.
The countries affected are South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi.
According to MOH, the list of nations on the temporary travel restrictions will be updated from time to time and risk assessments are conducted based on local infections, number of cases and the immunisation coverage in those countries.
Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has recently warned, the heavily mutated Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) is likely to spread further and poses a “very high” risk of infection surges that could have “severe consequences” in some places.
Among the nations struck by the new variant are Spain, Canada, United Kingdom, Austria, Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, Norway, the United States, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hong Kong, Germany, Israel, Beligium, Italy, Japan and South Korea.
For the record, Covid-19 was detected in Malaysia on January 25, 2020, when three Chinese citizens, who had entered Malaysia through Johore from Singapore on Jan 23, were tested positive for the disease.
As of yesterday, daily new cases of Covid-19 in the country surged to 5,806, bringing the cumulative figure to 2,644,027.
Selangor, which is ahead of other states with four-digit numbers, reported 1,724 new daily cases yesterday, with 18,291 active Covid-19 cases.
With the cumulative figure of 2,644,027, Malaysia now ranked 21st in the list of 222 nations nations/territories struck by the Covid-19 pandemic. Just ahead of Malaysia is Netherlands (2,684,734) and the Philippines (2,833,473).
Active Covid-19 cases with probable infections as of yesterday stood at 62,253.
During the week from Nov 27 to Dec 2, daily new cases are as below: November 27 (5,097), Nov 28ember (4,239), November 29 (4,087), November 30 (4,879), December 1 (5,439) and December 2 (5,806).
Of 5,806 new cases reported yesterday, Director General of Health, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 103 (1.8 per cent) were categories 3, 4 and 5; while 5,703 (98.2 per cent) were categories 1 and 2.
According to MOH, category 5 is for critical cases requiring ventilators; category 4 is for patients needing oxygen assistance and category 3 is for patients with pneumonia. Category 1 is for patients who are asymptomatic and category 2 is for those with mild symptoms.
Total Covid-19 recoveries as of yesterday stood at 7,246 cases, bringing total recovered cases to 2,551,253 (96.5 per cent).
Of 368 Covid-19 patients warded at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) yesterday, 145 cases needed respiratory assistance.
Another 47 fatalities were registered yesterday, bringing the total cumulative figure to 30,521.
Dr Noor Hisham said, total cumulative cases infected by the SARS-CoV-2 categorised as Variant of Concern (VOC) and Variant of Interest (VOI) stood at 4,682 cases. Of the total cases detected, 4,672 were VOC and 20 were VOI.
Meanwhile, the Ro/rt value stays below 1.00. Below is the Ro/Rt during the week under review November 27 (0.96), November 28 (0.96), November 29 (0.95), November 30 (0.95), December 1 (0.95) and December 2 (0.96).
As of yesterday, Perlis recorded the highest Ro/Rt value at 1.12.
The R-Naught or R0/Rt value of a virus indicates the infectivity rate or the number of new infections generated by each case. An R0 value of 0.5 would be needed to flatten this deadly virus’ infection curve.
— Bernama
