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

       The first case from this cluster was detected on Dec 17 after his arrival from a Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

       Sabah 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 weeks from now to know whether these returnees carry the Omicron variant," she said when contacted, adding that no cases involving the Omicron variant had been detected in Sabah so far.

       This cluster has, as of Dec 30, 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 reminded all umrah returnees to stay isolated, and to not accept visits from anyone until their two-week quarantine period was over.

       Meanwhile, Sabah continued to see a gradual increase in Covid-19 cases.

       It recorded a total of 264 new cases on Jan 1, with Kota Kinabalu district recording the highest number with 56 new cases.

       Minister in charge of Covid-19 matters in Sabah, Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, said that despite these new cases, most are those under category one and two.

       "This proves that vaccination helps, as most of those under category one and two are fully vaccinated," he said.