Australia confirms first Covid Omicron infections

Health officials in Australia's most populous state confirmed on Sunday that two arrivals from southern Africa over the weekend had tested positive for the Omicron coronavirus variant.

The New South Wales health department said both passengers had come to Sydney on Saturday evening and had tested positive for COVID-19 late that night.

According to the health officials they had detected the Covid Omicron strain in Australia for the first time in two passengers who were tested after flying into Sydney from southern Africa.

The eastern state of New South Wales' health authority said it had conducted urgent genomic testing and confirmed the new strain was present in the two people who landed in Sydney on Saturday.

Both passengers came from southern Africa and arrived in Australia on a Qatar Airways flight via Doha, NSW Health said in a statement.

They tested positive for Covid shortly after arriving, leading to an urgent analysis for possible infection by the heavily mutated Omicron strain.

"The two positive cases, who were asymptomatic, are in isolation in the special health accommodation. Both people are fully vaccinated," NSW Health said.

Another 12 passengers from southern Africa on the same flight did not test positive for Covid but had been placed in quarantine, it said.

About 260 passengers and crew on the plane have also been told to isolate, the health authority said.

The plane with the infected passengers landed on the same day that Australia announced it was banning flights from nine southern African countries including South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The World Health Organization has listed Omicron as a variant of concern and said it could take several weeks to know if there are significant changes in transmissibility, severity or implications for Covid vaccines, tests and treatments.