A family put into quarantine after an Omicron exposure at Lyneham Primary School have opened up about the "stressful, challenging, frustrating" experience.
Seven-year-old Tom Breed is one of about 180 close contacts required to quarantine after a positive Omicron case attended his school on Tuesday, November 30 and Wednesday, December 1.
There are also 30 children and staff from nearby O'Connor Cooperative School in quarantine following an exposure to the Delta strain.
Household contacts of Omicron close contacts must also remain at home, starting two weeks from the last exposure date.
Andrew Breed said it had been a challenging experience, but had been helped by neighbours who dropped off food and helped walk their active border collie, Tess.
"[It's been a] stressful, challenging, frustrating time," he said.
"It's still mentally challenging when you feel like we've been through all of this before, or something similar, and it's even worse this time than the [previous] lockdown - we can't even go out for an hour exercise.
"It's been challenging, but nowhere near as bad as what millions of other people have been experiencing in plenty of other parts of the world."
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith called the introduction of a two-week quarantine period a "highly precautionary approach" to Omicron.
"One thing we do know about Omicron is it appears to be more transmissible even than Delta," she said.
"We know that for COVID overall there's a potential incubation period of up to 14 days. We [also] don't know how effective vaccines are against Omicron."
Omicron close or secondary contacts who receive a negative test on day 13 must remain in quarantine until 11.59pm on day 14.
The Breed family will be allowed out at midnight on Wednesday, December 15 - only a week before they are due to fly to Adelaide.
Mr Breed said he was glad the family went into quarantine in early December, because they don't want to miss Christmas with his ageing parents and his brother, who usually lives overseas.
"[We don't know when we're] going to see people who we love and care about again, and my parents are old, I've got a brother who lives in the States," he said.
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Mr Breed said one of the hardest things about the emergence of the new variant was the uncertainty.
"At the moment we haven't changed our plans, but it just makes them more uncertain. South Australia could just decide to close their border to people from ACT, and then we wouldn't be able to go," he said.
"It just creates a bit of increased uncertainty, and a bit of stress."
Ms Stephen-Smith thanked the hundreds of Canberrans in quarantine because of Omicron exposures.
"Anyone who is in quarantine, thank you so much for doing this to protect the wider community. It is really, really difficult," she said.
