Lagatar24 Desk
Sydney, Nov 28: Australian health officials on Sunday confirmed two cases of the new ‘Omicron’ COVID-19 strain in the country for the first time.
The state of New South Wales reported two cases of the new ‘Omicron’ variant. The state government confirmed on Sunday that two people arriving from southern Africa over the weekend had tested positive for the new variant. Both passengers had arrived in the state capital, Sydney, on Saturday evening and tested positive late that night. They both were vaccinated and had no symptoms.
Earlier, on Saturday the United Kingdom had also reported the first two cases of the Omicron variant.
Notably, the World Health Organization on Friday named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as Omicron. This new variant is considered more dangerous than the delta variant. It has been declared as a ‘variant of concern’ by the WHO on Friday.
Following the reports about this new variant, the United States, the European Union, Canada, Israel and other countries have restricted travel from several southern African nations over health concerns.
