Omicron COVID variant CONFIRMED in Australia, NSW Health warns

The concerning new COVID variant Omicron has arrived in Australia, NSW Health has confirmed.

Both passengers came to Sydney from southern Africa on the evening of Saturday November 27. They underwent testing on arrival and tested positive for COVID-19 late Saturday night.

More details in the video below

The two positive cases, who were asymptomatic, are in isolation in the Special Health Accommodation.

Both are fully vaccinated.

The two passengers were amongst fourteen people from southern Africa who arrived on Qatar Airways QR908, Doha to Sydney, which arrived around 7pm, Saturday November 27.

The remaining 12 passengers from southern Africa are undertaking 14 days of hotel quarantine in the Special Health Accommodation.

Around 260 passengers and air crew on the flight are considered close contacts and have been directed to isolate.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 28: Passengers undergo COVID-19 tests at the Histopath Diagnostic Specialists pre-departure area at Sydney International Airport on November 28, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. NSW Health authorities will now send people who have been overseas in the two weeks before their arrival into three days of home quarantine, as the state works out its response to the threat posed by a new, “concerning” variant of COVID-19 named Omicron. Premier Dominic Perrottet says precautionary steps are needed to protect against the Omicron variant while experts investigate the risk to the public. The border control, announced on Saturday evening, is on top of new restrictions imposed by the federal government on Saturday, closing the border to nine countries in Southern Africa. Australian citizens entering NSW who have been in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Malawi, and the Seychelles in the last two weeks must now do two weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine. (Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images) Credit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

‘Not like February’, Morrison says

Earlier on Sunday Scott Morrison assured Australians the country is not facing the same sort of challenges it endured when the coronavirus first arrived in early 2020.

The prime minister says the emergence of Omicron is a fast-moving issue but the government will continue to be guided by the best possible medical advice.

“This is not like it was back in February and March and 2020,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.

“We now have good knowledge, good advice, the uncertainties are not like they used to be, we have good systems which have been proven.”

Australia has shut its borders to nine southern African countries and states have brought in new rules for international arrivals amid concern over Omicron.

Australia has shut its borders to nine southern African countries and states Credit: AAP

Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton says not enough is known about Omicron but it appears to be a very transmissible variant.

“It certainly seems to have spread very quickly in southern Africa and in the Republic of South Africa in particular,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

“Numbers have been increasing evidently over a short period of time, it has become the predominant variant in that country already in a very short period of time.”

Even so, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese congratulated state governments for their swift action.

“This strain could cause a real problem,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

“We know that with Delta it spread very quickly, and we need to take whatever measures are necessary.”

COVID case breakdown

In total, NSW reported 185 new infections on Sunday, but for a fourth day in a row, no new deaths were reported.

In Victoria, 1061 new cases were announced and four more virus-related deaths, while there were seven new infections in the ACT.

There were also four new cases detected in the Northern Territory, where the remote community of Lajamanu will stay in lockdown until December 11 after the virus was detected in wastewater.

There were no new infections in South Australia after reporting three on Saturday.

NSW, Victoria and the ACT have introduced a three-day home quarantine requirement for international arrivals.

There is more work to be done in understanding this new variant

At this stage it means travellers from Japan and South Korea can enter Australia without needing to quarantine from December 1 as planned, Trade Minister Dan Tehan says.

However, the Morrison government is keeping a watchful eye on developments surrounding the Omicron variant.

Mr Tehan told Sky News’ Sunday Agenda program from Geneva that he believes the government hast got the balance right at this stage.

“But obviously there is more work to be done in understanding this new variant and the potential impacts it might have.”

Mr Tehan travelled to Switzerland for a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting, only to find it had been cancelled because of the clampdown on travellers from the southern African states.

Omicron COVID variant CONFIRMED in Australia, NSW Health warns
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