Two returned travellers have tested positive to the new Omicron variant after arriving in Sydney overnight.
NSW Health has confirmed two people who flew into Sydney about 7pm on Saturday from southern Africa had since tested positive to COVID-19, which was later found to be caused by the new variant.
Both travellers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and are asymptomatic. They are in isolation in the special health accommodation.
The travellers were among 14 people from southern Africa who arrived on Qatar Airways QR908, Doha to Sydney.
The other 12 passengers are undertaking 14 days of hotel quarantine.
About 260 passengers and air crew on the flight are considered close contacts and have been directed to isolate.
The sudden arrival of the Omicron variant in Australia took many by surprise, particularly due to the new entry restrictions.
"We thought that we would get turned back," one passenger, wearing a mask, told 9News.
"We were on the tarmac and they turned us back to get a health official to tell us whether we could land or not."
Others took health measures into their own hands, with multiple passengers arriving in Sydney wearing their own hazmat suits.
Border restrictions introduced yesterday mean any Australians who have been in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Malawi, and the Seychelles in the past 14 days must enter hotel quarantine for 14 days, irrespective of their vaccination status.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet today urged people to get a COVID-19 booster shot if they are six months on from their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
It took the Delta strain of COVID-19 just three weeks to reach 53 countries. There is early evidence Omicron could be far more transmissible.
It has already reached the UK, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel.
"It's more transmissible and potentially it can evade some of the vaccines," Jane Halton from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness told Today.
