Vaccine booster time frame to be reviewed as COVID-19 Omicron variant appears in Australia – ABC News

Australia'sexpert immunisation panel willreview the time framefor COVID-19 booster shots,as the nation's leaders come to terms with thethe detection of the Omicron "variant of concern".

TheAustralian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation's (ATAGI) current advice for the booster shotis that it be administered six months after a person has received their second dose.

Health Minister Greg Hunt today called for calm and insistedAustralia waswell placed to deal with the new variant should it spread in the community.

He said he hadasked ATAGI to review the time frame for booster shots and said Australia's vaccine stocks could accommodate fast-tracking them if it was recommended.

"We will, as ever, allow them (ATAGI) to act independently and continue to follow their advice," Mr Hunt said.

"But we're prepared with supplies. We are already one of the earliest nations in the world, after Israel, to havea whole-of-nation booster program.

"If they recommend changes, we will follow those changes."

The Australian Medical Association said in a statement the emergence of the Omicron variant underlined the need for a more aggressive rollout of booster shots, and a network of dedicated quarantine facilities.

Early evidence suggests symptoms caused by the Omicron variant appeared to be mild.

Mr Hunt said 415,000 people had so far received booster shots, out of an eligible cohort of about 500,000.

Four cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in NSW, following confirmation from genomic testing of two travellers who arrived from southern Africa yesterday.

The Northern Territory has also recorded the strain in a man in quarantine who recentlyreturned from South Africa.

The federal government on Saturday announced that non-Australian citizens who hadbeen in nine countries in southern Africa where Omicron hadbeen detected were barred from entering Australia.

Mr Hunt said the government would not hesitate to take additional measures if required, but the government's aim was to "remain safely open".

Aftera new COVID-19 variant emerged in southern Africa, scientists, health officials and the public areconcerned, and the World Health Organization is monitoring the situation closely. Here is what we know.

"We're in a vastly different positionfrom where we were on February 1, 2020," Mr Hunt said.

"We are one of the most highlyvaccinated, one of the most recentlyvaccinated, and one of the first tocommence a whole-of-nation boosterprogram from around the world."

Chief Medical OfficerPaul Kelly said vaccine manufacturersPfizer and Moderna were already preparing for the event that the Omicron variant proved more resistant to current vaccines.

But Professor Kelly said there was no evidence yet that vaccines were less effective against the strain.

He said it would take time to understand its severity.

"We know that there areseveral hundred either confirmed orsuspected cases that have gonethrough that genomic analysis inSouth Africa," he said.

"We know that there areone or two confirmed cases fromsurrounding countries.

"There arehandfuls of cases from parts ofEurope, and so forth, very smallnumbers at the moment.

"What we know so far isthe mildness of those that havetravelled to other countries itwill only be when we have largernumbers that we can make thatassessment."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is convening the government's National Security Committee this evening to discuss the Omicron variant, with a meeting of state and territory leaders also expected in the next 48 hours.

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Vaccine booster time frame to be reviewed as COVID-19 Omicron variant appears in Australia - ABC News