NSW COVID cases grow; Victoria COVID cases grow; Omicron variant cases asymptomatic, mild; Alan Tudge stands down, Greg Hunt retires, Victoria pandemic bill passes

NSW Health has confirmed that at least three students from a school in west Sydney are infected with the worrisome COVID-19 variant of Omicron, with an additional ten coronavirus cases under investigation at the school.

The department said in a media release tonight that genome sequencing had confirmed that two cases of COVID-19 at Regents Park Christian School were the Omicron variant, in addition to an earlier case reported this morning.

NSW Health Secretary Brad Hazzard on Friday.Credit:Kate Geraghty

In another 10 coronavirus cases at the school, genomic tests are urgently carried out to determine whether they also have the Omicron variant.

Health Secretary Brad Hazzard said today that the first case of Omicron confirmed at the school had not traveled to southern Africa and has not been linked to anyone who had traveled overseas in the past few weeks, meaning it may be the The first confirmed case of a transfer of the variant is on “NSW-Boden”.

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NSW Health has also confirmed that the parents of a confirmed Omicron case, first reported yesterday, of a child who is too young to be vaccinated, also tested positive for this variant.

NSW Health said the parents and their child “arrived on November 23 on flight QR908 from Doha to Sydney. The family isolates themselves in the special health shelter.

“These travelers were not in southern Africa and NSW Health feared that there was a transmission on this flight. [The parents] are both fully vaccinated. “

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in NSW to 13, three of which are at Regents Park Christian School.

Early this morning, Mr. Hazzard urged the community to keep “perspective” on the latest cases.

“I think the transmission is always a problem, but at the moment we just have to keep in mind that it is not clear worldwide whether this particular variant will cause us anything close to the problems that the earlier variants caused. ” he said.

“We don’t see people suddenly being hospitalized. What we see are people who are either asymptomatic or generally have very mild symptoms ”.

NSW Health announced that individuals who visited the Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym at 5/850 Woodville Road, Villawood on Saturday, November 27, between 9:00 am and 4:30 pm, were in close contact with a confirmed Omicron case and need to be tested and isolated immediately for COVID-19 according to public health guidelines.

It also announced a change from the time it previously announced a confirmed case of the variant that Centrelink and Medicare visited on Wednesday, November 24 at 56-64 Archer Street in Chatswood. The new time is between 2:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Anyone who has visited this venue is a casual contact who needs to be tested and isolated immediately until a negative result is obtained. People should continue to watch for symptoms and get retested if they occur.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-news-live-alan-tudge-steps-down-amid-investigation-into-abuse-allegations-nsw-omicron-covid-cases-grow-victoria-pandemic-bill-passes-20211202-p59ebh.html