Mr Morrison said the Commonwealth would not make any decisions about the next steps until there was more information about Omicron,but it was the government’s hope the variant proved to be a milder form of coronavirus.
“We’re not going back to lockdowns,none of us want that,” he said. “What we did last night was protecting against that by having a sensible pause.”
Professor Kelly said the country’s chief health officers were continuing to meet daily to discuss the latest data on the variant,with signs still showing it caused mild symptoms,but more work was needed.
The effectiveness of vaccines against Omicron was one of the main concerns,he said,but the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and national cabinet meetings would also be looking at public health measures in response to the strain.
“We do know it’s transmissible. We don’t know still about the vaccine effectiveness. We don’t know about severity,” Professor Kelly said. “This is a temporary pause so we can get that information that we need.”
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Tuesday’s national cabinet meeting will receive an update on the Omicron strain,and Mr Morrison will outline the action taken by the federal government before leaders look at any measures state and territories also want to take.
“The purpose of this afternoon’s meeting is to ensure that we’re all on the same page about what this Omicron variant is,what its risks are,what its risks are not,” Mr Morrison said.
Universities,which have been desperate for international students to return to their campuses,were racing to respond to the sudden changes on Tuesday.
The Group of Eight lobby,which represents the country’s elite research universities,feared the pause would most impact hundreds of offshore medical students,many of whom were based in the US and Canada and had studied remotely during their first year.
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“They need to be on campus and in our hospitals undertaking their clinical placements as soon as practically possible,” chief executive Vicki Thomson said.
University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott,in an email to students,urged those offshore to “proceed with your student visa application”,saying the university was continuing to plan for more arrivals in January once borders reopened.
The University of Melbourne also moved to reassure its 18,000 international students by email on Monday,saying it was “committed to doing all we can to ensure you are able to travel safely to join us on campus in 2022”.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the decision to defer the reopening was not taken lightly and the government was “acutely aware” of the impact it would have on people,families and businesses.
“We have been very focused on doing all we can to open our international borders as safely but as quickly as we possibly can do,” she said. “I do want to stress that this is a 14-day pause and we are working to ensure that we can open our borders as soon as we possibly can.”
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the decision to keep the border shut to certain visa holders for a further two weeks was proportionate.
“What we’ve done is follow the medical advice,” he told reporters on Tuesday morning. “Australia has dealt with challenges and we’re ready for this,we’re able to deal with this,and we want to give Australians that confidence.”
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