The shock finding came when a traveller from South Africa to NSW was detected to have the BA. 4 sub-variant of Omicron – a first known case of its kind in Australia. Victorian testing facilities also detected the BA. 2.12.1 Omicron strain in Melbourne wastewater.The initial Omicron variant has been Australia’s dominant strain since its arrival in November 2021.However, University of South Australia epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said the newly detected strains were “more dominant” than their predecessor and could cause a new spike in cases. “What we know about BA. 4 is that it appears to escape the immune system a bit better than BA. 2, so that means that people who’ve already been infected can be reinfected more easily, and people who are vaccinated can be infected more easily,” he told 7 News.“This comes just at the stage we’re removing all our public health measures. That’s the bad news.”However, Prof Esterman said the huge surplus in positive cases over the past six months had given Australians good immunity against the new strains. “Many people have been infected now and those who haven’t been infected probably have quite good immune systems from being vaccinated, so we have got a bit of protection from major increases in cases from these two sub-variants,” he said.The case was discovered through a PCR test on Thursday after the traveller arrived in Australia in the first week of April.“This is not a random sample, therefore the proportion of variants identified is not necessarily reflective of their distribution in the community,” NSW Health said.“NSW Health continues to closely monitor the evolving situation with COVID-19.”Australian has recorded tens of thousands of cases every day since Omicron was first detected in November 2021. It has since been discovered to be wildly more infectious, but less severe than previous Covid strains.
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