Australia Detects More Omicron Variant Cases in the Weekend.

The Omicron coronavirus variant spread in Australia on Saturday, testing plans to reopen the economy as a cluster in Sydney grew to 13 cases and an infection was suspected in the state of Queensland.

Five people in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, have contracted the omicron variant of the coronavirus locally, New South Wales health authorities confirmed. 

The cases are linked to two schools and a climbing gym in Sydney’s western suburbs, which may also be the source of a confirmed omicron infection in the Australian Capital Territory, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said Sunday.

Australia reported its first community transmission of Omicron on Friday at a school in Sydney. Authorities are investigating the source. The student with no history of foreign travel had tested positive for the Covid-19 Omicron variant, the country’s first detected case of community transmission.

New South Wales Health said “the case has no overseas travel history or links to people with overseas travel history” but stressed that further investigations and contact tracing were underway.

The student’s Regents Park Christian School in the west of Sydney has been closed and the family is said to be in quarantine.

Further Omicron cases were expected over the weekend when more tests results come, said Kerry Chant, chief health officer of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital.

Queensland authorities said the state suspected its first Omicron case in a person who travelled from South Africa and that genome sequencing was ongoing.

“The public health unit have ruled out that it is Delta but we haven’t been able to confirm if it is Omicron,” state Health Minister Yvette D’Ath. “But it is being treated as if it is.”

Australia has detected nine other Omicron cases, but all were detected in incoming travellers.

The latest case raises the possibility that Omicron may already be spreading more widely in the community.

The Australian Capital Territory, home to the capital Canberra, was on alert for further spread after one of its new coronavirus cases was found to be a close contact of the Territory’s first Omicron case reported on Friday.

Authorities in South Australia said on Saturday that arrivals from New South Wales, Victoria and the capital territory will be tested. The state reopened its domestic borders only days ago for the first time in months.

Australia currently records around 2,000 Covid cases a day.Ads by 

Besides vaccinations, the virus’ spread has been limited by two years of border closures, lockdowns, aggressive testing and tracing as well as local travel bans.

Authorities have expressed confidence that with 87 percent of people over 16 years old vaccinated, the country is well placed to deal with the new variant. 

Hospitalisation rates are currently low, and the pandemic death toll stands at 2,021.

The severity of Omicron is not yet known and it is also unclear whether it could render existing vaccines less effective.

Despite battling many outbreaks this year, leading to months of lockdown in Sydney and Melbourne – Australia’s largest cities — the country has had only about 834 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 7.9 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organisation, a fraction of impact in many other developed nations.

Australia has had just under 215,000 cases total and 2,042 deaths.