Key Points
- Pre-departure COVID-19 testing begins for travellers from China, Hong Kong and Macau
- New subvariant of Omicron, XBB.1.5 surge in the Northern Hemisphere
- XBB.1.5 is the most transmissible subvariant that has been detected yet (WHO)
New South Wales and Victoria saw another steady decrease in new COVID-19 cases this week.
19,793 new cases were reported in New South Wales, compared with 27,665 in the previous week, while Victoria recorded 12,349 cases compared with 16,568 in the last week.
However, the number of lives lost due to COVID increased in both states. New South Wales increased from 32 to 77, while in Victoria, 69 to 108 people.
Travellers from China, Hong Kong and Macau are now required to present evidence of negative result when entering Australia.
They must show a negative Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) or Nucleic Acid Amplification Technology (NAA) test, which includes PCR, LAMP and TMA, undertaken within 48 hours of their scheduled departure time.
If using RAT, it must be administered or supervised by a medical practitioner who must issue a certificate.
It has been revealed that Australia's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly had explicitly advised the Albanese government not to introduce COVID-19 testing on travellers from China due to a lack of "sufficient public rationale" and inconsistency with the country's approach to living with the virus.
However, the restrictions were introduced out of an "abundance of caution", pointing out China's lack of comprehensive information about its COVID situation.
China's foreign ministry has labelled countries implementing COVID measures to travellers from China as "unacceptable", warning of potential reciprocal actions.
World Health Organisation (WHO) has met scientists from the China CDC to discuss their situation and reiterated the critical need for additional analysis and sharing of sequence data.
According to WHO, the new subvariant of Omicron, XBB.1.5 has been detected in 29 countries so far, with a surge in cases in Northeastern parts of the U.S.
"It is the most transmissible subvariant that has been detected yet," said WHO's infectious disease epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove.
According to WHO's latest COVID-19 epidemiological update, there has been a reduction in weekly cases and death by 22% and 12%, respectively across the globe.
Due to both reduction and delays in tests, this data is "incomplete" and are "underestimates of the true number," says WHO.
At the country level, the highest number of weekly cases has been reported from Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, China and Brazil.
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