A person in New South Wales has been admitted to hospital infected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the first Omicron patient to be hospitalised since it arrived in Australia last month.
It comes as thousands of protesters marched through capital cities on Sunday to oppose vaccine mandates, and Western Australia and Queensland prepared to reopen their borders.
After two years of border closures, the WA premier, Mark McGowan, is on Monday due to announce when the state’s borders will reopen to domestic and international travellers, after reaching the 80% vaccination milestone at the weekend.
And “tens of thousands” of people are expected to cross into Queensland after its borders reopen at 1am on Monday. It will be the first time in 229 days people will not need to quarantine on arrival, provided they are fully vaccinated.
Police have urged patience from travellers. “It’s been very, very difficult to estimate but I could safely say anywhere between 20 and 40 or 50,000 additional vehicles,” said the commissioner, Katarina Carroll.
“We don’t know exactly whether people would be coming immediately or will delay the trip for a couple of days.”
Carroll urged people wanting to visit Queensland from 13 December to travel outside peak hours, and said they should expect significant delays.
Queensland reported one overseas case of Covid-19 on Sunday – a man in his 30s who arrived from Nigeria. Health authorities are monitoring the genomic sequencing of his infection to see if it is the Omicron variant.
The Queensland treasurer, Cameron Dick, said it was “very good news” only one case had been detected but warned the border reopening meant the days of very low infection numbers “won’t last”.
Booster jab interval reduced
The federal government on Sunday announced it would cut the waiting time for Covid-19 vaccine booster shots from six months to five under a plan to counter the spread of the new strain.
Evidence from the UK says the spread of Omicron appears to be doubling every two to three days in that country.
Prof Neil Ferguson, a member of the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said while Omicron now only represented 2% 3% of new infections, it was likely to be the dominant strain across the UK by the end of the year.
“It’s likely to overtake Delta before Christmas at this rate,” he said, adding it could be necessary to impose new lockdowns as a result.
NSW recorded 10 new cases of Omicron in the 24 hours to 8pm Saturday night – still only a fraction of the 485 new cases recorded. That brings to 55 the total number of Omicron cases in the state.
A confirmed Omicron case visited the Argyle House nightclub in Newcastle on 8 December. That case is linked to an earlier outbreak on a party boat cruise on Sydney Harbour a week earlier.
In Victoria, there were no new confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the past 24 hours. There remain three confirmed cases in total.
Genomic sequencing is also under way to confirm the variant for seven other probable Omicron cases who have tested positive for Covid-19.
The federal government said its decision to bring forward the timeframe for fully vaccinated people to get their booster vaccination from six months to five was motivated by the rapid global spread of Omicron.
“We do believe that boosters are going to be much more important … to give that extra immunity, particularly as the Omicron variant is likely to spread around the world,” said the federal health department secretary, Brendan Murphy.
Meanwhile, Victoria will no longer require hotel quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers from the nine southern African countries previously identified as of concern over Omicron – South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, and Mozambique.
Travellers arriving from those countries will follow the rules applying to travellers arriving from other countries.
Protesters again gathered at Victorian parliament in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon, chanting “free Victoria” before marching down Bourke Street.
In Sydney, thousands gathered at Hyde Park to rally against vaccine mandates for a range of workplaces.
The protests were part of a national day of action across the country, with demonstrations also in Queensland, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide and Hobart.
