After the government reported its first cases of the Omicron variant, Australia’s plans to reopen its borders to skilled migrants and students would be reviewed on December 1, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday.
Officials issued a 14-day quarantine for citizens returning from nine African countries after two persons arriving in Sydney from southern Africa tested positive for the newly found strain on Sunday.
Morrison said that it was ‘a little early’ to restore a two-week obligatory hotel quarantine for foreign visitors, encouraging people to remain calm because the virulence, transmissibility and vaccination resistance of the Omicron strain had not yet been completely confirmed.
The World Health Organization has designated Omicron as a ‘variant of concern’ because it is potentially more contagious than prior versions. However, doctors are unsure if it will cause COVID-19 to be more severe or less severe than other strains.
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