Australia records first Omicron community case, authorities hold nerve for now (updated)

First Northern Community Bancorp

03/12/2021 01:56

(Adds first Northern Territory death)
    SYDNEY, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Australia on Friday reported its
first community transmission of the new Omicron coronavirus
variant, but authorities held steady on a plan to reopen the
economy amid hopes it would prove to be milder than previous
strains.
    The new case, a school student from Sydney, was the first
confirmed Omicron infection of a person who had not travelled
overseas, a sign the variant was now in the community,
authorities in New South Wales state said.
    "Transmission is always a concern but we again need to keep
it in perspective," NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told
reporters, explaining why Australia's most populous state was
not reversing its staged reopening from strict lockdowns imposed
in July due to the Delta variant.
    "Worldwide there is no clarity around whether this
particular variant is going to cause us anywhere near the
problems that the earlier variants caused us."
    Australia now has nine confirmed cases of the Omicron
variant, eight in NSW, where a third of the country's 25 million
people live. Although some states have tightened domestic border
controls, the federal government is hoping to avoid a return to
stop-start lockdowns.
    Even so, it has postponed by two weeks a plan to let foreign
students and skilled migrants into the country, and Australians
returning from southern Africa must complete two weeks of hotel
quarantine.
    Asked if the federal government would stop targeting
arrivals from southern Africa, now that the new variant was no
longer limited to people who had been there, Federal Health
Minister Greg Hunt said "we will continue to review the medical
advice, but we follow it because it has kept Australia safe."
    Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly, the government's top
health adviser, said Australia would not recommend bringing
forward vaccine booster shots, as other countries have done, as
there was "no evidence" this would improve protection against
Omicron.
    Australia's aggressive COVID-19 response has helped it avoid
the high numbers of COVID-19 deaths recorded in many other
countries, with about 212,000 cases and 2,000 deaths.
    The country's remote Northern Territory, which is home to
most of its indigenous population, recorded its first COVID-19
death, an indigenous woman in her 70s.

 (Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Sam Holmes and Stephen
Coates)
 ((byron.kaye@thomsonreuters.com; +612 9171 7541; @byronkaye;))