PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has detected 245 cases of the Covid-19 Omicron variant in the country so far, says Khairy Jamaluddin.

       The Health Minister said that 233 of these cases were imported while there were 12 local transmissions.

       "A total of 157 of the cases involved returning umrah pilgrims," he said at a press conference Thursday (Jan 6).

       Khairy added that the suspension of umrah travel would continue for a month for risk assessment purposes.

       He also said that Omicron cases could spike up to 15,000 if no action, such as the umrah travel suspension, was taken.

       MORE TO COME