Health officials in New South Wales warned vaccines “may be less effective” against the Omicron variant and could lead to an increase in hospitalisations, just days before premier Dominic Perrottet announced Covid-19 restrictions would be scrapped.
On 10 December, NSW Health’s Covid-19 critical intelligence unit published a briefing note on what was then the emerging Omicron variant, which had been discovered in South Africa in late November.
