Australia finds new Omicron ‘lineage’ in arrival from S Africa

 Australia finds new Omicron ‘lineage’ in arrival from S Africa

09.12.2021

Australia’s Queensland state has found a new Omicron lineage in a traveller who arrived from South Africa, health authorities said Wednesday. The new lineage has about half the gene variations of the original and can’t be detected with typical screening, the state’s acting chief health officer Peter Aitken told reporters. It was found in a traveller who had arrived from South Africa and tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday, he said. The new lineage has enough markers “to be able to classify it as omicron, but we don’t know enough about it as to what that means then as far as clinical severity, vaccine effectiveness,” Aitken said. “We now have Omicron and Omicron-like.” The discovery comes as Queensland prepares to reopen border to the rest of Australia next Monday. BLOOMBERG