KOTA KINABALU: Health officials will need at least two more weeks to confirm whether umrah returnees who sparked a new Covid-19 cluster in Sandakan recently were carriers of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

       The first case from this cluster was detected on Dec 17 after their return from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

       State Health Department director Datuk Dr Rose Nani Mudin said due to the complexity of this variant, it would take time for the whole genome sequencing to be known.

       “I think it would take at least two more weeks to know whether these returnees carried the Omicron variant,” she said when contacted, adding that so far, the variant had not been detected in Sabah.

       As at Dec 30, this cluster has seen a total of 18 people infected with the Covid-19 virus.

       Dr Rose said all precautionary measures had been taken to ensure that the infected patients and their close contacts were quarantined.

       She also reminded all umrah returnees to stay isolated and not to accept visits from anyone until their two-week quarantine period was over.

       Meanwhile, Sabah continues to see a steady increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.

       As of yesterday, a total of 264 new cases were recorded, with Kota Kinabalu having the highest number at 56.

       Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, who is the minister in charge of Covid-19 matters in Sabah, said most of the cases were under Categories One and Two.

       “This proves that vaccination helps as most of those under Categories One and Two are fully vaccinated,” he said.