NSW student believed to be first case of Omicron community transmission

A school student in western Sydney is believed to be the first case of community transmission of the Omicron strain of Covid in Australia, as health authorities decide against shortening the interval period for booster shots.

The student from Regents Park Christian School is the ninth confirmed Omicron case in New South Wales. The source of the infection is unclear, as the student has not travelled overseas recently and has no links to any returned travellers.

On Friday, authorities confirmed two other Covid-positive students from the school were infected with the Omicron strain.

Students in senior grades have already finished for the year, however contact tracers are investigating if the Omicron variant has spread further and could be circulating in the community.

And late Friday, the ACT confimired a case of the Omicron variant had been in the community. Health authorities were attempting to trace if the case was acquired in NSW as the individual had not been overseas.

Amid concerns that Omicron could be spreading, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation determined that Australians will still have to wait six months after their second Covid vaccine dose to receive their booster.

Also on Friday, the Northern Territory recorded its first death from Covid-19, as police start an investigation into the border breach that ignited the current outbreak.

The unvaccinated woman in her 70s from the Binjari Aboriginal community died about 11.30pm on Thursday in Royal Darwin hospital.

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Gunner said the woman was admitted to hospital on 20 November and had underlying health issues.

The fatality comes a day after the virus was detected in another remote community, with a 45-year-old man diagnosed in Lajamanu, 900km north-west of Alice Springs, near the Western Australia border.

The outbreak started when an infected woman illegally entered the NT in late October.

The 21-year-old lied on her border entry form before travelling from Cairns to Darwin after visiting Victoria, where she contracted the virus.

She infected a man in Darwin before the virus spread to Katherine, then the Aboriginal communities of Robinson River (1,000km south-east of Darwin), Binjari and Lajamanu.

Globally, more than 400 Omicron cases have been identified in 30 countries.