Australia has detected another nine cases of Omicron, but all have been detected in incoming travellers.
Sydney, Australia:
On Friday, Australia said a student with no history of overseas travel had tested positive for the Covid-19 variant Omicron, the country’s first detected community transmission.
The incident, discovered in the country’s largest city Sydney, occurred despite a ban on non-citizens entering the country and restrictions on flights from southern Africa. , where the variant was first discovered.
New South Wales Health said “this case has no foreign travel history or involves people with a history of foreign travel” but emphasizes that further investigations and contact tracing are underway. .
Australia has detected another nine cases of Omicron, but all have been detected in incoming travellers.
The latest case raises the possibility that Omicron may have been spread more widely in the community.
Students’ Regents Park Christian School in Sydney’s west has been closed and the family is believed to be in quarantine.
Australia currently records around 2,000 Covid cases a day.
Besides vaccinations, the spread of the virus has been limited by two years of border closures, lockdowns, active testing and tracing, and local travel bans.
Authorities expressed confidence that with 87% of people over the age of 16 vaccinated, the country has the capacity to deal with the new variant.
Hospitalization rates are currently low, and the death toll from the pandemic is 2,021 people.
The severity of Omicron is unknown and it is not clear whether it could make existing vaccines less effective.
But there are concerns that this variant may be more transmissible than the dominant Delta strain.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
