COVID-19 update: First XE COVID infection detected in Australia, SA eases rules

This is your update on COVID-19 in Australia for 15 April.

Passengers wait at Sydney Airport in New South Wales. (file) Source: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

New South Wales (NSW) has reported its first case of the XE coronavirus infection. The recombinant (BA.1/BA.2) was detected in a recently returned overseas traveller, the NSW Health noted in its weekly report ending 9 April 2022. 

Six mixed BA.1/BA.2 infections have also been identified in the past four weeks, but they are not of the XE lineage. Read more about XE here.

Victorian health authorities have detected a new sub-variant of the Omicron virus in wastewater samples. The sub-variant, which is either BA.4 or BA.5, was detected from wastewater samples taken from the Tullamarine catchment. This sub-variant has been recently detected in a small number of cases in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany.

South Australia has eased face masks restrictions from 12.01 am 15 April.

However, the masks are still mandatory in disability care facilities, residential aged care facilities, prisons, correctional facilities or training centres and public or private hospitals.

Residents must wear a face mask in health care services, pharmacies, pathology collection centres, passenger transport services (including taxis, rideshare and other hire or charter vehicle arrangements) and airports and aeroplanes.

The National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance has designed a tool for parents to decide whether COVID-19 vaccination is right for their child. The tool provides all the information about the virus and vaccine.

Western Australia's Chief Health Officer, Dr Andy Robertson, said the state was now officially past the current Omicron wave. He told ABC Radio Perth that the state government could consider removing the requirement for indoor face masks once the cases decline further.

The US Food and Drug Administration has given an emergency use authorisation for InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer, an instrument that detects coronavirus infection using breath samples in less than three minutes.

The first of its kind instrument is about the size of a carry-on luggage. It can be deployed in doctor's offices, hospitals and mobile testing sites.

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