Australia on Monday reported the first death confirmed from the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 amid a surge in other daily infections, but the authorities refrained from imposing new restrictions that said the inpatient level remained low.
Death, a man in his 80s with the underlying health condition, marked a gloomy milestone for a country that had to pause several parts of the reopening staged after almost two years of stop-start lock, because of the fresh outbreak.
Omicron, which is said which health experts look more contagious but less malignant than previous strains, began to spread in the country as did raise restrictions on most domestic borders and allow Australians back from abroad without quarantine, driving the highest pandemic number.
The authorities did not provide additional details about Omicron’s death, except to say that the man caught a virus at the age and death care facilities at Sydney Hospital.
“This is the first known death in New South Wales (state) related to the variant of Omicron’s concern,” said NSW Health Epidemiology Christine Selvey in a video released by the government.
The man was among six Covid-19 deaths reported in Australia the previous day, all in the state of NSW and Victoria was the most populous, which was home to more than half the population of 25 million countries.
NSW, Victoria, and Queensland countries reported 9,107 new cases on Monday, placing the country on track for other peaks in new infections. Five states and other regions have not reported a daily case number.
“Even though we see an increase in case numbers … we don’t see the impact on our hospital system,” said Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier of Queensland who reported 784 new cases with four people in the hospital.
With a six-hour wait time report for Covid testing for people who hope to meet the requirements for inter-country holiday trips, Palaszczuk defend the tourism friendly country for mandatory testing, saying “everyone knows when they order the ticket if they want to come here They have to do a PCR test “. “
“We need to make sure we protect (Queenslanders),” he said.
The Australian authorities have so far opposed to locking in facing case numbers soaring but have returned some restrictions. On Monday, NSW again made him mandatory to check into public places with a QR code, while many states have brought back masks in public areas in the room.