In a statement, he said this brings the total number of variants of interest cases to 4,692, with 4,672 involving variants of concern.

These comprised 4,432 Delta cases, 226 Beta and 14 Alpha. Meanwhile, other variants of interest detected included Theta (13 cases), Kappa (4) and Eta (3).

Noor Hisham also announced that the government would be banning travellers from 24 countries from visiting Langkawi under the travel bubble in view of concerns over the Omicron variant.

Travellers who have been to these countries in the past two weeks are also not allowed to go to Langkawi under the travel bubble.

The countries are Russia, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Guernsey, Croatia, French Guiana, the Philippines, Libya, Jordan, Bangladesh, Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The list will be updated weekly, said Noor Hisham.

However, Langkawi residents – whether Malaysians or permanent residents – who have travelled to these countries in the past 14 days will be allowed to enter the country, but only through the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

They will then be required to quarantine for 14 day before they can travel to Langkawi.

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