Two cases of Omicron Covid strain in Sydney

TWO overseas arrivals into Sydney have tested positive for the new strain of the Covid virus known as Omicron.

And there are fears it may already be circulating in Victoria after a passenger from South Africa travelled to Victoria from NSW this week.

The Sydney cases arrived on Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha on Saturday. They tested positive to Covid and genome sequencing confirmed they had Omicron.

The travellers, who were fully vaccinated and are understood to be asymptomatic, have been put into special quarantine.

Passengers and crew on the same flight have been ordered to isolate.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Omicron was concerning after moving from a variant of investigation to a variant of concern in 24 hours.

He backed the moves by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet to introduce 72-hour isolation for all international arrivals.

Australia has suspended flights from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, the Seychelles, Malawi, and Mozambique for 14 days, banning non-citizens who had recently travelled to those countries from entering.

Britain, Germany, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel have also recorded Omicron cases.

Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said the variant would likely become the new dominant strain, and new travel restrictions would “buy time” while authorities determined their next step.

“It’s going to be impossible to keep out, I imagine, so it’s still important to buy time,” he said.

Named omnicron after a letter in the Greek alphabet, the variant has more than 30 mutations in its spike protein, which is the structure the virus uses to get into the cells it attacks.

Leading Victorian epidemiologist Tony Blakely said the next few weeks would be crucial in understanding how resistant the variant was to current vaccines, but he thought it was likely a modified version would be needed.

“There’s just so many mutations on this virus it would seem most likely we will need new vaccines,” Professor Blakely said.

But already BioNTech, which developed Pfizer, has said it could produce and ship a modified vaccine against Omicron within 100 days.

In a best-case scenario, the variant would be more infectious but less deadly, replacing Delta as the dominant strain but “easier” to live with, Prof Blakely said.

While the federal government is not looking to close international borders entirely, Trade and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan will not rule out tougher restrictions if top medical experts advise it.