THE Government will temporarily suspend all umrah travels beginning Jan 8, with ticket bookings to the Holy Land halted starting today.
Announcing the matter, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the Government had also selected a few premises for those returning from umrah to quarantine themselves beginning Jan 3.
“However, those leaving to Saudi Arabia from Jan 1 until Jan 7 will be allowed to go but they must quarantine themselves at the quarantine stations or hotels selected by the National Management Agency for Natural Disasters (NADMA).
“The decision was made upon consulting the Prime Minister and the Government had agreed to the matter following the rise in Omicron infections,” he said in a statement.
Elaborating, Khairy said that his ministry had detected nine COVID-19 clusters involving umrah pilgrimage arrivals, with five of them being the highly infectious Omicron variant.
He added that one cluster was categorised under Presumptive Omicron case, while awaiting Whole Genomic Sequencing (WGS) test to complete. The other cluster is found to be a non-Omicron case.
“The large congregation involving umrah pilgrimage travellers might expose themselves to the risks of getting COVID-19. The situation made it difficult for them to adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the Government.
“And it didn’t help when many who came back had flouted SOP during their home quarantine, risking their neighbours and relatives to COVID-19,” Khairy mentioned.
With that said, Khairy stated that those arriving from Saudi Arabia will be mandated to:
- Do a RT-PCR test two days before arriving to Malaysia
- Do a RT-PCR test on the day of arrival
- Quarantine themselves for seven days at the authorised quarantine stations
- If found symptomatic, the individual will be required to do a RTK Antigen test, and a RT-PCR test five days later
- The individual will only be released from observation after eight days, provided there is no extension and the RT-PCR test comes back negative on day five.
“We would like to advise all those coming back from Saudi Arabia and are undergoing home quarantine now to adhere to the SOP.
“Please refrain from inviting people into your homes during quarantine to prevent COVID-19 spread among family members, friends and the community.
“Failure to adhere to the directive is a breach of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act and action will be taken against the individual,” Khairy stressed. – Jan 1, 2022
