“There's a big likelihood that Omicron is in Malaysia, there are other cases, and we will increase genomic surveillance to be certain,” says Khairy Jamaluddin.
The Omicron Covid-19 variant was found in a 19-year-old female foreign student who arrived in Malaysia on Nov 19 from South Africa via a Singapore transit and complied with home quarantine in Ipoh, Perak.
According to a PAC report, Pharmaniaga only delivered two million of four million Sinovac vaccine doses via fill-and-finish promised from April to June.
Experts encourage Hajj and Umrah pilgrims to take the pneumococcal jab besides the compulsory meningococcal and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines (1,11).
Malaysia ranked 50th of 53 economies in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking last month, scoring poorly on lockdown severity, flight capacity, vaccinated travel routes, community mobility, and 2021 GDP growth forecast.
Malaysia shared only 67 genomic sequences with GISAID in the last 30 days as of Dec 2, or 0.04% of 161,140 Covid-19 cases, ahead of Russia’s 0.01% that is lowest in the world.
Khairy Jamaluddin says Malaysia’s current travel restrictions on southern African countries are “precautionary” and are not intended “to punish” them for alerting the world of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.