MALAWI is the latest addition to the list of countries where travellers are barred from entering Malaysia due to the emergence of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, Health Minister Khairy Jamaludin said.

The seven countries currently on the list are South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The addition of Malawi is part of precautionary measures to prevent the variant, also known as B.1.1.529, from spreading here.

The situation involving other countries where Omicron has emerged is also being assessed, Khairy said.

These include the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Australia.

He said that the Health Ministry will impose entry restrictions on foreign workers and international students from those countries.

Khairy said the decision was reached in a meeting yesterday as the government decided to implement temporary preventive measures against Omicron.

He added that other measures included obtaining a daily list of countries that reported cases involving the new variant and countries with high transmission risk.

“High-risk countries include those that have low-vaccination rates and high community spread.

“We will do daily risk-assessment to update the list of countries. The list will be distributed to relevant parties such as the Immigration Department and the Foreign Ministry,” he said. – December 1, 2021.