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A highly infectious variant of Covid-19 has reached Australia and is rapidly spreading across the world.
Staff interrogate people as they wait in line at a Covid-19 testing station on the north beaches of Sydney, Australia. Source: Associated Press
The first Australian case of the South African variant is that of a woman who arrived in Queensland on December 22 and went straight to a hotel quarantine.
“Genome sequencing has come back to show you have this new variant that has been detected in South Africa and is believed to be more contagious,” said state health director Jeannette Young.
The woman was taken by ambulance to Sunshine Coast University Hospital Tuesday.
The variant is causing concern around the world because it spreads faster than the new coronavirus, although it is not necessarily more deadly.
The World Health Organization has yet to determine whether the new variant, and another that was recently developed in the United Kingdom, could undermine vaccines that are being rolled out around the world.
The first Australians are scheduled to be vaccinated at the end of March next year.
At least 24 countries around the world have recorded cases of variants of the coronavirus from South Africa or the United Kingdom, including Lebanon, Singapore, Pakistan, India, South Korea, Japan, France, Germany and Italy.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said that while other jurisdictions had detected a variant of the virus in the UK, this was the first time the South African strain had been confirmed in Australia.
“We are absolutely sure that all appropriate measures were taken at the hotel and at the transfer, and of course at the hospital in relation to this positive case,” he said.
Australia earlier this month confirmed that it had identified two cases of the British variant in arrivals from the UK, one of which was in South Australia.
Meanwhile, there is a fear in New South Wales that a Covid-19 outbreak in the Sydney North Beaches area could have spread to the wider community.
The government is urgently trying to identify the sources of the infections of three people outside the epicenter of the Avalon virus.
One lives in Wollongong, on the southern coast of the state, but recently visited Sydney. The others live in the inner west and north of Sydney.
So far no immediate link has been found to the northern beach group, which now numbers 129.
As New Year’s Eve approaches, Australian governments, including New South Wales, are warning residents to observe coronavirus restrictions and social distancing.
Sydneyns have mostly been banned from watching the famous New Year’s Eve fireworks from the harbor with the beach fenced off.
The New South Wales government wants people to stay home and watch the seven-minute midnight fireworks show on television.
The federal government also warned that it could punish backpackers or expats who violate public health orders at gatherings and parties with deportation.
In the meantime, Victorians are urged not to venture into Melbourne’s CBD to celebrate New Year’s Eve unless they have a reservation.
Although Victorian hospitality venues had demonstrated strong Covid safe practices, Acting Premier Jacinta Allan said “another move” posed a risk.
“The only people who are allowed to enter the CBD during the New Year’s Eve period are those who already have a reservation at a hospitality venue in the city,” he told reporters.
Victoria accumulated her 60th day on Tuesday without any case of community transmission of the coronavirus.
So far, some 909 people have died in Australia from the coronavirus.
