Australian PM tests for Covid-19 following casual contact

15-12-2021 Wed 13:29 | International | IANS

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison tested for Covid-19 late Tuesday after coming into a casual contact. The testing followed his attendance at a school graduation ceremony in Sydney last Friday. A Covid case was later found to be among the 1,000-person event, Xinhua news agency reported.

Morrison's office confirmed he was deemed a casual contact by New South Wales (NSW) authorities, but he has returned two negative Covid polymerase chain reaction tests since the event, and NSW Health and the Chief Medical Officer have advised he is not required to isolate.

The incident happened when the virus, including the new Omicron variant, is wreaking havoc again in NSW. The latest new daily case number jumped to 1,360 on Wednesday, an increase of more than 50 per cent compared to 804 on the previous day.

Despite being identified as a casual contact, Morrison will travel on Wednesday to the state of Queensland, which had closed its borders to NSW and Victoria for months due to concern over the spread of the virus, has just reopened.

(The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the ap7am team.)