Malaysian Minister Of Health Investigate Omicron Case Involving Indonesian Citizens

Illustration of Indonesian citizens going home (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Malaysian Ministry of Health is still conducting further investigations into positive cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Indonesia involving Indonesian citizens (WNI) who were repatriated from Malaysia.

Malaysia's Health Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin in Putrajaya, Saturday, said the case involved a 20-year-old man who returned to Indonesia on December 10, 2021 with a negative COVID-19 test on arrival.

"The results of the investigation in Malaysia found that the case was an Unidentified Foreign Immigrant (PATI) detainee at the Semenyih Depot who was arrested on September 22 along with three other friends," he said as quoted by Antara.

Khairy said the four PATIs were checked for entry into the detention depot on September 23, 2021 and all were negative, but two of his friends were released on September 24 because they had complete documents.

"Only the man and his partner in the case were found guilty and repatriated to Indonesia on December 10 after the trial," he said.

He said, until now, the case partners who returned together were informed that they were negative for COVID-19 at the second screening, while further investigations were still being carried out to obtain information on the close contact of the case and the cause of death.

"Communications with the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia and the Indonesian Ministry of Health are still ongoing to obtain further information regarding the case. The Ministry of Health is also working with the Malaysian Immigration Department to carry out investigations, contact tracing of cases as well as for appropriate prevention and control measures," he said.