Criticised for latest Omicron travel restrictions, Khairy says Malaysia taking ‘proportionate’ action compared to ‘extremes’ elsewhere

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin last night said that his ministry would continue to respond in a calibrated and appropriate manner, and not resort to extremes such as implementing a total lockdown.

In a series of Instagram stories, Khairy shared two articles from British daily The Guardian, the first of which was a report on more than one million people having been infected with Covid-19 on January 3 in the United States of America and how India’s capital of New Delhi has imposed a weekend curfew to curb  the spread of the Omicron variant.

The second article detailed how the city of Xi’an in China put its 1.2 million citizens under lockdown after three asymptomatic Covid-19 cases were detected there, joining 13 million other Chinese citizens who are currently in lockdown.

“Omicron (is) wreaking havoc in other countries. Million daily cases in the US. Curfew in Delhi.

“Meanwhile, China locks down 1.2 million people because of three asymptomatic cases. Extremes all around. KKM (Ministry of Health) will continue to respond in a calibrated and proportionate manner,” he said in his stories accompanying the posts.

He added that despites attacks against him and his ministry on the recent travel restrictions, they would continue to do their best to slow down the impending Omicron wave.

The Health Ministry reported 45 new Omicron cases imported from abroad on Christmas Day last year. This included 30 Muslim travellers who returned from Saudi Arabia after performing their umrah.

This led to the ministry temporarily suspending travel permission to prospective pilgrims beginning January 8 to curb the spread of Omicron following concerns over the spread of the variant due to non-compliance by Muslim pilgrims with quarantine procedures upon their return.

Khairy said he is discussing the options for affected pilgrims on whether to offer a refund or reschedule the umrah travel programmes with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, the Umrah and Haj Travel Agencies’ Association.