Australia reports first suspected community case of Omicron

Sydney, Australia, Dec 3 (EFE).- An Australian school student with no overseas travel history has tested positive for the Omicron variant of Covid-19, suspected to be the first case of local transmission in the country, authorities reported Friday.

The Regents Park Christian School student in western Sydney has not been overseas and has no links to people who have traveled abroad, New South Wales Minister of Health Brad Hazzard told reporters.

“It would appear that the case could well be an on-NSW-soil transmission,” he said.

Two other students from the same school show “early indications” of the Omicron variant and are undergoing testing.

The school has been dismissed for the year and contact tracing is underway.

“Worldwide there is no clarity around whether this particular variant is going to cause us anywhere near the problems that the earlier variants caused us,” Hazzard said.

This is the state’s ninth case of the new variant, but the others had recently arrived from overseas.

On Monday, the Australian authorities delayed its partial border opening to students and foreign workers until Dec. 15 after detecting the first cases of the new variant. EFE

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