Australian authorities announced on Friday the first case of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant due to transmission to the community; the infected person is a student who has not recently traveled abroad, which presumably means that the variant it is now circulating in the population of the country.
The outbreak, which was confirmed in Sydney, the country’s largest city and the capital of the state of New South Wales, was spotted despite a ban on foreigners entering Australian territory and other restrictions on flights from southern Africa, where the new variant was identified. in late November.
The student who was infected with Omicron had not traveled “abroad” and has “nothing to do with people who have traveled abroad,” the New South Wales Department of Health said, adding that tracking of his contacts was still ongoing.
Nine other Omicron cases have been identified in Australia. All the infected people are travelers who returned to the country from abroad.
The Regents Park Christian School in West Sydney, where the student attends, has announced that it is closing. The child’s family has been quarantined.
Australia is currently recording around 2,000 cases of SARS-CoV-2 per day. But, with 87% of citizens over the age of 16 fully immunized, authorities are confident the fight against the pandemic and the effectiveness of the vaccines against the new variant.
The number of patients currently being treated in hospitals is low. The country has recorded 2,021 deaths due to COVID-19 out of a total of some 212,000 cases of SARS-CoV-2, numbers that are rather low compared to other countries of similar level of economic growth and population.
The Northern Territory, where most of Australia’s natives live, announced today its first death from COVID-19. It was 70ara indigenous.
Omicron has been described as a “worrying variant” of the new coronavirus by the World Health Organization. Scientific research is under way to determine whether it is more contagious and more resistant to COVID-19 vaccines.
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