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Malaysia's health minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced the first case of Omicron variant in the country.

The patient is a foreign student at a private university in Perak.

She returned to Malaysia on Nov. 19 after visiting her family in South Africa.

She had entered Malaysia before South Africa alerted the world to the new variant of concern.

After Omicron was made known to the world, the Malaysian health ministry conducted genomic tests on all positive cases detected from Kuala Lumpur International Airport between Nov. 11 and Nov. 28.

That's how the case was eventually uncovered, Khairy explained.

The patient is fully vaccinated and was asymptomatic. The patient also compiled with the home quarantine requirement upon arrival, Khairy added.

Contact tracing has been conducted.

The Malay Mail reported that the patient travelled to Malaysia via Singapore.

Mothership has contacted the Ministry of Health, and we will update accordingly.

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