Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and NSW premier Dominic Perrottet have agreed to do “everything [they] can” to follow a mutual border strategy that would ensure travel between both states can be maintained during the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays. This will be particularly reassuring news for Sydneysiders, as last summer's Avalon outbreak led to snap border closures that derailed the Christmas and New Years plans of thousands of eager travellers.
Neither Victoria nor NSW will follow an 'Omicron zero’ strategy, as cases of the new ‘variant of concern’ grow in NSW, with urgent genomic sequencing yet to confirm if a new locally acquired case in Queensland is Omicron.
The SA government has also announced that its borders to the rest of the country will remain open, with some added testing requirements for travellers arriving from Victoria, NSW and the ACT. However, state premier Steven Marshall told a press briefing on Saturday, December 4, that he had not ruled out closing the border if Omicron cases spiked.
As yet, the Queensland government has not announced any changes to its plans of reopening for quarantine-free entry into the state by fully vaccinated travellers on December 10. The federal government has not announced any further plans to delay reopening international borders to visa holders on December 15, after it pushed back the original date for reopening from December 1.
Health experts have urged caution but not panic regarding the Omicron variant, which was first identified in South Africa in November. Multiple countries around the globe, including the US, UK, and several European nations, have now detected Omicron infections spreading in the community. While it is known that Omicron has a significantly higher number of mutations compared to previously identified strains, it is not yet fully understood what those additional mutations mean for transmissibility, the severity of illness, morbidity or whether vaccines still offer good protection. NSW health minister Brad Hazzard said on Friday, December 3, that while there was not yet enough conclusive scientific data to make an official announcement, all of the cases identified in NSW thus far had been either asymptomatic or had exhibited only minor symptoms.
Almost all Omicron cases identified in NSW have been in Metropolitan Sydney. NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant described the emergence of Omicron in the community as a “rapidly evolving situation,” adding “we are starting to see an uptick in cases in Sydney, so please continue to go out and get tested. Take those simple measures to keep you and your loved ones safe.”