Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly's interview on Sunrise on 29 November 2021

Read the transcript of Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly's interview on Sunrise on 29 November 2021 about coronavirus (COVID-19).

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DAVID KOCH:                       

Now, The Australian cases of Omicron have been confirmed in Sydney after two travellers from southern Africa tested positive to the new strain. They were on board Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha, which arrived in Sydney at about 7pm on Saturday.

NATALIE BARR:                    

All up, there were 14 passengers who had been to Omicron-affected nations including the two positive cases. Four hours later, an Emirates flight arrived with another 15 potentially affected passengers. All 29 are now in quarantine.

DAVID KOCH:                       

Let's get the latest from Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly. Paul, we all panic at the news of a new variant. Is this worse than Delta and does our existing vaccination protect us from it?

PAUL KELLY:                         

Good morning, Kochie, Nat and viewers. Look, panic is not the right word for now. It certainly- we are alert and the WHO calls this a variant of concern because it is different from previous variations we've had. Well we've had thousands - tens of thousands of variations of that SARS-CoV-2 virus over the last two years, and even the 13 that have been labelled as variants of concern have been quite concerning at the beginning and then as more information has come through, less concerning.

Really only the Alpha, the Delta, the only two that have really changed the way we have had to deal with the virus. So - so, it's early days and we just found out about this late last week. We've been meeting every day, having a lot of information sought, and actively sought from international colleagues. I - for example, I spoke with the Israel Ministry of Health yesterday about their experience. And so, there's more to come.

What sort of things are we looking at? We're looking at three main things. One, is it more severe? We don't know that yet. In fact, there are some reports that it may be less severe. Is it transmissible from person to person? It is. Is it more transmissible than Delta? It might be. That's certainly what seems to be happening in South Africa, it's replacing Delta.

And the third issue is, will the vaccines continue to work? Will the treatments that have been developed continue to work? And at this stage, we don't have any definite evidence that there is a problem there, but we are certainly looking very closely at that over the coming days and weeks.

DAVID KOCH:                       

Okay.

NATALIE BARR:                    

So, we've heard also that - well, we were reminded by the New South Wales Health Minister that it only took three weeks for Delta to go right around the world in over 50 countries. So, how long do we wait to work out what this thing is about?

PAUL KELLY:                         

Well, look, we haven't waited, Nat. So, we made very clear and distinct and specific interventions over the weekend. Myself and Minister Hunt got up and went to the media announcing those on Saturday. So, those limitations on people coming from those nine southern African countries which are similar to many other countries around the world, what they have done at the border. For those who are Australians, they are allowed back but they will need to go into quarantine as we've seen.

Really strengthening the messaging but also the legal provisions about providing information around vaccination status and a pre-flight test, which have been there for a long time. But also, where have you been in the last 14 days, and making clear that that is absolutely compulsory for that to be told, and taking that approach of making sure that we know that and take appropriate action at the - at the airport over the weekend and that's - that's certainly been increased, that readiness and - and vigilance.

So, that's playing out. And that's just giving us- that is giving us time over these days to get more- as much information as we can but I think we have to realise that not all of those questions that I said - that I posed, severity, transmissibility and the vaccine effectiveness will be answered quickly. Some of those will take longer. But we - we have a lot more information than we did on Friday now and we'll have more in the days to come.

DAVID KOCH:                       

Okay. And we'll keep checking in regularly to keep us updated. Paul Kelly, thanks for your time.

PAUL KELLY:                         

You're welcome. Thank you.

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