The health department has announced a change to quarantine rules for overseas travellers entering Victoria amid concern over the new Omicron variant.
All new overseas vaccinated arrivals in Victoria will be required to quarantine at home for 72 hours.
The Department of Health has flagged the new changes in response to the new Omicron Covid variant which has been detected in South Africa.
“These changes are safe and proportionate measures we can take to protect Victorians from the new Omicron Covid-19 variant of concern, while still allowing overseas travellers to come into Victoria,” Victoria’s acting chief health officer Deborah Freidman said.
“We’ll will continue to work with the Commonwealth Government and state and territory colleagues to better understand the potential implications for this new variant and which actions are required to keep Australians protected.”
The federal government earlier today announced that arrivals from one of nine southern African countries will be required to undertake 14 days hotel quarantine in light of the new variant.
The nine countries are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, The Seychelles, and Zimbabwe.
All other vaccinated arrivals into Victoria from countries other than those nine countries must quarantine at home for 72 hours.
This applies to unvaccinated children under 12 years old, unaccompanied minors, and those medically exempt from vaccination.
There are currently no known cases of the Omicron variant reported in Victoria.
The new public health orders will be reviewed after three days.
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