There is confusion about how things like swimming pools, camping grounds and Christmas parades will operate under the new regime.Īuckland has been locked down for more than 100 days. The Omicron variant comes as the Government here is racing to plug gaps in guidance about how the new traffic light system will work when it kicks in later this week following complaints by some local authority leaders that current advice was inadequate. Only New Zealand citizens travelling from those countries can come in while more research is carried out and they get a better understanding of the impact of this new variant. This included border controls, MIQ, testing people coming in at the border and carrying out whole genome sequencing to check which variant people had.Ĭountries where Omicron was mostly present had been classed as high-risk and the borders had been closed to them, Ardern said. In a livestream posted to Facebook last night, she reassured followers that there were still a lot of safeguards in place because of the risk of variants. The World Health Organisation was undertaking research "very quickly" to find out how effective vaccines would be against this variant, whether it made people more or less sick and whether it was more infectious. The developments are likely to raise fears that the new mutation could soon arrive in New Zealand.Īrdern said last night it was too early to say whether Omicron was vaccine-resistant. The remaining 12 passengers are undertaking 14 days of hotel quarantine. The two confirmed cases were among 14 people who had travelled on Qatar Airways QR908 from Doha. The fully vaccinated travellers had arrived from southern Africa on Saturday and tested positive on arrival.
Genomic testing confirmed two recent arrivals into Sydney were infected with the new Omicron strain.
It comes as two cases of the Omicron variant were confirmed in Australia last night just days out from New Zealand entering its new traffic light pandemic response system. Photo: Getty Images Omicron cases confirmed in Australia Parts of the country who were in red would still have a limit of 25 people inside a home.Ī man undergoes a Covid-19 test at a pre-departure area at Sydney International Airport on Sunday. She said there are still gathering limits, though. Under the new traffic light system, Ardern gave a big "yes" when asked if people were allowed to have visitors inside their home again. You'll be able to get out there and enjoy the things you love again," she told Breakfast.Īrdern said officials had ruled out any part of the country moving immediately into the green light setting. "Ultimately, the thing to remember is if you've got your vaccine pass in Auckland, you'll see things reopen. No area will start at green she has said.Īrdern expected that people would become very familiar with the traffic lights system once we moved into them. She said the Government had increased nurses' pay and also made sure there was capacity in MIQ to bring nurses home.Īrdern will reveal New Zealand's traffic light settings this afternoon after Cabinet meets, with the setting to begin this Friday. The bigger issue was beefing up the nurse workforce rather than just the physical space in hospitals. She acknowledged that vaccines may also have to be adapted in response to new variants of Covid-19 - including Omicron.Īrdern said internal work has been done on ICU capacity.
They were milder and included fatigue, she said. They were also seeing slightly different symptoms for Omicron. Twenty people were due to return from high-risk regions in the next two months, but Ardern wasn't sure if they fitted the new category to return now.Īll cases were treated with absolute caution and anyone who was positive would go into managed isolation and quarantine facilities.Īrdern said the doctor in South Africa who was part of identifying the new variant said the patients she had encountered were younger in many cases than what we are used to seeing. Officials were keeping a close eye on whether more countries need to be added to the high-risk list. We just don't know yet," she told The AM Show this morning. "We need to be prepared for it either to be possibly more severe, possibly more mild. Officials needed more information before saying whether the move to allow travellers from Australia to self-isolate from mid-January would change.
As Cabinet prepares to decide the Covid traffic light levels for the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern believes it's too early to say what changes may be needed in response to the Omicron variant.Īrdern said today that authorities could respond very quickly at the border and all travellers were still required to go through the MIQ system.
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