The Ministry of Health (MOH) has traced a second case of the Omicron variant in Malaysia, involving an eight-year-old child from Lagos, Nigeria.

According to Health Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, the child, along with his mother and sister arrived in the country via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on December 5th before he was confirmed positive for COVID-19 two days later. 

He has then been confirmed to carry the Omicron variant on December 14th, after the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) performed a full sequence of the genome. "The patient has no symptoms and is currently undergoing quarantine at home for 14 days," he added.

"This brings the cumulative number of cases detected by Omicron to two cases, both of which involve imported cases from abroad," he said at a press conference in the Parliament today. Khairy also said the Health Ministry has also been informed of a total of 18 possible cases of Omicron variants currently being detected in the country among travelers returning from abroad.

The 18 possible cases of the Omicron variant were detected as a result of the PCR Genotyping Assay test conducted by the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) involving 52 samples.

"The MOH would like to inform that the results of the PCR Genotyping Assay conducted, a total of 18 cases showed the possibility of Omicron variants and are currently awaiting confirmation results from WGS," he concluded. 

Please take extra precautions and maintain social distancing as well as practise strict SOPs. Our fight against COVID-19 is not over yet, Malaysians.