PETALING JAYA: Umrah trips to Saudi Arabia will be suspended from Jan 8 following a surge in Covid-19 cases among returnees and concerns over the highly infectious Omicron variant. Those returning from umrah to Malaysia will also have to serve their quarantine at designated stations or hotels earmarked by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) from tomorrow.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said those who had already made arrangements to go for umrah, including having paid for their packages, would be refunded or have their travel rescheduled following the suspension.
He said a discussion was in progress between the Health Ministry and the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry as well as the Umrah and Haj Travel Agencies’ Association to help those affected by the postponement.
“It is not the intention of the government or the Health Ministry to stop people from performing the umrah but when the data that we receive is deeply concerning and there is a very worrying increase in the number of cases, we have no choice but to suspend travel.
“I’m very sorry to those who had planned to go,” Khairy told reporters yesterday.
Half of the 64 confirmed Omicron cases in Malaysia have so far come from umrah pilgrims, with more likely to be on the way as the Health Ministry awaits test results from 966 samples of presumptive Omicron infections, of which 750 or 77.6% cases involved travellers arriving from Saudi Arabia.
Pilgrims departing for Saudi Arabia between Jan 1 and 7, said Khairy, were still allowed to proceed but would have to undergo quarantine at Nadma-designated stations or hotels upon arrival in Malaysia.
To a question on costs, pilgrims, he added, had the option of either bearing the costs of undergoing the quarantine at hotels listed by the Health Ministry or to undergo quarantine at government-provided centres.
He said Nadma was making arrangements to provide suitable and comfortable quarantine stations for those returning from umrah.
Khairy said that in the last two weeks of 2021, the majority of infections had been coming from Saudi Arabia, with a total of 1,161 cases compared to 49 infections from the United Kingdom, 13 from Singapore and eight from Indonesia.
“Large-scale gatherings involving pilgrims from various countries during their stay in Saudi Arabia have exposed Malaysians to a higher risk of Covid-19 infection, including the Omicron variant.
“This made it difficult for the pilgrims to comply with standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the Malaysian government,” he said, adding that there had also been cases of people breaking home quarantine rules upon their return to Malaysia.
As at Dec 30, the ministry has detected nine clusters involving umrah pilgrims.
“The large number of Malaysian umrah arrivals of about 800 to 1,000 people a day (using four special flights) further increases the risk of importing Covid-19 cases and Omicron variants into the country.
“Most of the pilgrims who return from performing umrah have applied to undergo home quarantine for seven days.
“However, non-compliance with home quarantine procedures at home has exposed housemates or neighbours and relatives who come to visit, to Covid-19 infections,” he said.
Umrah pilgrims, he added, might also have been infected while in Saudi Arabia but the disease might have been in the incubation period of the infection, causing their screening tests before returning to Malaysia to turn up negative.
He said risk assessment of the Covid-19 Omicron variant in and outside the country, especially in Saudi Arabia, would be carried out periodically before any decision was made to allow the resumption of umrah trips.