Australia sees first death from Omicron, but refrains from imposing new curbs

SYDNEY • Australia reported its first confirmed death from the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 yesterday amid another surge in daily infections, but the authorities refrained from imposing new restrictions, saying hospitalisation rates remained low.

The death, a man in his 80s with underlying health conditions, marked a grim milestone for the country, which has had to reverse some parts of a staged reopening after nearly two years of stop-start lockdowns due to outbreaks.

Omicron began to spread in the country just as it lifted restrictions on most domestic borders and allowed Australians to return from overseas without quarantine, driving case numbers to the highest of the pandemic.

The man was among six Covid-19 deaths in Australia on Sunday, all in the most populous states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, which are home to more than half the country's 25 million population.

Australia clocked just over 9,400 new cases yesterday, slightly down from the previous day's record but not including cases from the state of South Australia, which was yet to report its numbers. Most new cases were in NSW and Victoria.

"Although we are seeing increased case numbers... we are not seeing the impacts on our hospital system," said Ms Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Premier of Queensland, which reported 784 new cases, with four people in hospital.

With reports of six-hour wait times for Covid-19 testing for people hoping to meet requirements for inter-state holiday travel, Ms Palaszczuk defended the tourism-friendly state's policy on mandatory testing.

However, she added that Queensland was considering a relaxation of testing requirements for domestic visitors. Tasmania, another tourist-popular state, also said it was considering changes to state border testing rules.

Around the country, the surge in infections weighed on testing resources. Sydney testing clinic SydPath had confirmed on Sunday that it wrongly told 400 Covid-19-positive people they were negative in the days before Christmas. Yesterday, it realised it sent wrong result messages to another 995 people.

The Australian authorities have so far resisted a return to lockdown in the face of surging case numbers, but have reinstated some restrictions. Yesterday, NSW again made it compulsory to check into public venues with QR codes, while many states have brought back mandatory mask-wearing in indoor public places.

The country has also narrowed the window for vaccine booster shots from six months to four months, with plans to reduce it to three months.

REUTERS