Australia has been urged to remain vigilant and maintain COVID-19 control measures as a new and stronger variant threatens to spread from southern Africa.
The latest variant, given the name Omicron by the World Health Organisation on Saturday morning, first emerged in Botswana and has been detected in South Africa, Hong Kong, Israel and Belgium.
It has double the number of mutations as the Delta variant that sparked a third wave of outbreaks and lockdowns in Australia this year.
"It is not time to break the glass on the alarm, I don't think, but I'm as concerned about this as I have been since Delta," Burnet Institute director Brendan Crabb told ABC TV.
"A state of heightened alert and caution is appropriate for us in Australia and for the world."
Professor Crabb described the new strain as having "a whole host of mutations that, I must say, makes me have a sharp inhalation of breath".
He stressed the most important thing wasn't borders, but keeping up vaccine coverage and infection control measures.
About 86 per cent of Australians aged 16 and older are double-dosed.
Prof Crabb said this translated to between 72 and 73 per cent of the entire population. Just 1.5 per cent of the country have received a booster shot.
"We have to be serious about other interventions and that's what I'm concerned about: masks, clean air, our test and trace system," he said.
"These are things that are not onerous on our society. We need to keep them whether this new variant takes hold or not.
"We're crazy to drop those 'plus' things in the vaccine-plus strategy that we've adopted so well."
Health Minister Greg Hunt did not think the new variant would have any immediate effect on Australia's plan to reopen after rolling lockdowns.
"The world is looking and learning about the strain," he told reporters.
"We've always been flexible, and if the medical advice is that we need to change, we won't hesitate."
The federal government is sending letters to every household in the country urging people to get their booster shot six months after becoming double-dosed.
Victoria recorded 1362 new infections on Friday and seven more deaths, while there were 261 cases in NSW and eight in the ACT.
© AAP 2021
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