Australia’s first two cases of Omicron variant detected in Sydney

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Australia’s first two cases of Omicron variant detected in Sydney

By Jenny Noyes and Mary Ward
Updated

Two international flight passengers who tested positive to COVID-19 after arriving in Sydney have been confirmed as Australia’s first cases of the new Omicron variant of concern, after urgent genomic sequencing was completed on Sunday.

The pair were passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha which landed at Sydney Airport at about 7pm on Saturday. They have been in isolation in special health accommodation since their arrival.

Premier Dominc Perrottet giving an update on COVID-19 quarantine in NSW.

Premier Dominc Perrottet giving an update on COVID-19 quarantine in NSW. Credit: Nine News

In a statement, NSW Health said the pair were asymptomatic and both fully vaccinated.

The other 260 passengers on the flight are now considered close contacts of a COVID-19 case and have been directed by health authorities to isolate.

“It is an offence not to comply with a Public Health Order and penalties can apply,” NSW Health said. “Close contacts will be contacted regularly, and compliance checks will be undertaken.”

In a statement on Sunday morning, NSW Health confirmed testing on arrival at Sydney Airport had identified two of the 14 passengers on the flight who had recently been in southern Africa had COVID-19, and urgent genomic sequencing was being carried out to determine whether they were infected by the new Omicron B.1.1.529 variant.

It came hours after federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced a two-week ban on non-citizens arriving from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique.

Australian citizens arriving from those countries are now required to enter 14 days of supervised quarantine upon arrival in Australia.

Another 15 arrivals from southern Africa arrived at Sydney Airport on an Emirates flight which landed around 11pm. All 29 have entered hotel quarantine.

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“The clear point today is that this clearly demonstrates the pandemic is not over,” Premier Dominic Perrottet said earlier on Sunday.

“We need to learn to live alongside the virus and to live alongside the various strains of the virus that will come our way, and the best thing we can do is get vaccinated and get booster shots.”

The Premier added that there were “limits” to what the government could do going forward to keep new variants out of Australia.

“These variants will get into the country, it is inevitable,” Mr Perrottet said.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it was possible the Omicron variant has already entered NSW, where fully vaccinated international arrivals have not been required to enter hotel quarantine since November 1.

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“This Omicron variant of the COVID virus is not well understood at this point,” Mr Hazzard said, noting that it only took three weeks for the Delta variant to spread to 53 countries.

“We have to expect that Omicron may already be here.”

NSW has so far recorded no cases of the Omicron variant in its genomic sequencing program.

The state recorded another 185 cases of COVID-19 and zero deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday, NSW Health reported Sunday morning.

Anyone who has already arrived in Australia and has been in any of the countries within the past 14 days, must immediately isolate themselves and get tested.

Mr Hazzard asked anyone who had been in southern Africa in the past 14 days to immediately contact NSW Health.

In addition, both NSW and Victoria moved on Saturday night to introduce 72-hour isolation requirements for all fully vaccinated international arrivals, regardless of their country of departure.

On Sunday, the Premier stressed this was a “short-term precaution” in light of the changing situation.

Europe, Britain and a host of other countries have also closed their borders to non-residents arriving from the same countries due to the emergence of the variant.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said there was one existing case of COVID-19 from southern Africa currently isolating at the Howard Springs quarantine facility in the Northern Territory, and that case will also be examined further to determine whether it is the concerning new variant.

Despite concerns Omicron may be highly transmissible – even more so than Delta – Mr Perrottet said the state government was not planning to make any changes to the post-lockdown reopening road map, with restrictions still set to ease for unvaccinated people on December 15.

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