Australia on alert after Omicron case went out into community

SYDNEY • Australia yesterday urged calm as it confirmed that a person with Covid-19 had the new Omicron variant after disclosing that the person had been active in the community.

The fully vaccinated person visited a busy shopping centre in Sydney while likely infectious, officials said. All passengers on the person's flight were asked to self-isolate for 14 days regardless of their vaccination status.

The additional case brings Australia's total number of infections with the new variant to six. But it is the first case where the person appeared to be active in the community. All other cases have been in quarantine and are asymptomatic or display very mild symptoms.

The country has delayed the reopening of its international borders by two weeks, less than 36 hours before international students and skilled migrants were to be allowed to re-enter the country.

New South Wales, home to a third of Australia's 25 million population, raised fines for overseas arrivals who did not comply with a mandatory 72-hour self-isolation, to A$5,000 (S$4,870) from A$1,000 for individuals, and to A$10,000 from A$5,000 for corporations.

The state, which only recently emerged from four months of lockdown, has been unwinding its system of mandatory hotel quarantine, but said arrivals from several southern African countries must spend 14 days in isolation.

The federal government urged state leaders to go ahead with plans to relax domestic border restrictions, which have been in place sporadically since the start of the pandemic, by Christmas.

Separately, Japan yesterday confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant in a man in his 30s who had arrived from Namibia. The man had tested positive for Covid-19 at the airport, officials said, identifying him as a Namibian diplomat.

The news came as the nation again shut its borders to new foreign entrants for at least a month and introduced strict quarantine for its own citizens on arrival from countries where the variant has been found.

Elsewhere, Austria, Spain, Scotland, Sweden and the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion also reported their first confirmed Omicron cases, while Switzerland reported one suspected case. And more new Omicron cases have also surfaced in Canada and Britain.

The WHO has said that widely available tests are able to detect individuals infected with any variant, including Omicron.

REUTERS