Covid-19 Watch: 306 case samples from travellers entering country likely to be of Omicron variant, says KJ

PETALING JAYA: A total of 306 Covid-19 case samples among travellers entering the country are likely to be of the Omicron variant, says Khairy Jamaluddin (pic).

The Health Minister said it was the result of a PCR Genotyping Assay test conducted by the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) involving travellers from Dec 21 to 25.

"Of that number, a total of 306 have indicated a presumptive Omicron variant and are now awaiting the results of the whole genome sequencing (WGS)," he told a press conference on Tuesday (Dec 28).

Khairy added that the government will lift the temporary travel restrictions on eight countries namely South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

“All eight countries will be included in the list of high-risk countries, bringing the total number of high-risk countries to 18,” he said.

The 10 other high-risk countries are the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, France, Denmark, India, Canada and Nigeria.