The Prime Minister will meet with state and territory leaders for an urgent national cabinet meeting today following a decision to delay the country’s reopening.
International students, workers and family visa holders had been due to enter Australia from 1 December but that has now been pushed back as authorities try to learn more about the Omicron COVID strain.
According to 7NEWS:
In a joint statement the committee announced it will take the ‘necessary’ and ‘temporary’ decision to pause the next step to safely reopen Australia to international skilled and student cohorts, as well as humanitarian, working holiday maker and provisional family visa holders from 1 December until 15 December.
The decision was made on the basis of medical advice provided by the Chief Medical Officer of Australia, Professor Paul Kelly.
The reopening to travellers from Japan and the Republic of Korea will also be paused until 15 December.
Premier Steven Marshall said over the weekend more info was needed about the new strain:
“We are concerned at this stage, we’re still trying to work out exactly and precisely what is going to occur from this new variant,’’ Mr Marshall said Sunday.
“I think we need a few more weeks to understand the Omicron variant. “We need to understand how current levels of vaccination will protect us. We also need to know what the symptoms are likely to be from this new variant. At the moment we know it is highly transmissible, but we don’t have much more information beyond that.”
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