Home Ministry admits mistake occurred during unvaccinated umrah pilgrims travel inspection process

08 Jan 2022 08:42am
Hamzah greetings residents, who have been displaced due to floods, at Taman Sri Nanding Community Hall on Dec 7. (Source: Bernama)
Hamzah greetings residents, who have been displaced due to floods, at Taman Sri Nanding Community Hall on Dec 7. (Source: Bernama)
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HULU LANGAT - The Home Ministry admitted that mistakes were made during the inspection process which allowed unvaccinated individuals to leave the country to perform their umrah pilgrimage and return back to Malaysia with the Omicron variant.

Its minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin said he ministry will discuss with airline companies on how boarding passes should be given to passengers.

He said those manning the counter may need to check the vaccine status of each passenger.

However, he said this error should not be placed on the Immigration Department alone because each person who wants to cross the border would have brought their boarding pass, which means they already “passed” the requirements.

“We should not simply point the finger, there were mistakes and God given, we will fix them because this has never happened before.

“We are just humans and we have to learn from what has happened and fix it,” he told media members on Dec 7 at a National Registration Department’s event at Taman Sri Nanding.

On Thursday, the Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin revealed that 17 out of 122 individuals tested positive for the Omicron variant as of Jan 4 are unvaccinated against Covid-19.

The 17 cases are imported from eight countries – the United Kingdom (4), Nigeria (4), the United Arab Emirates (4) and one case each from Saudi Arabia, the United States, Australia, Ghana and Ireland.

As of Dec 6, the total recorded Omicron cases to 245. - Astro Awani
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