How much should Australians be worried about Omicron, the new 'COVID-19 variant of concern'?

On Friday, the World Health Organisation declared the recently-discovered B.1.1.529 strain of COVID-19, first detected in southern Africa, to be a variant of concern and renamed it Omicron. The classification puts Omicron into the most-troubling category of COVID-19 variants, the globally-dominant Delta, and its weaker rivals Alpha, Beta and Gamma.

The Omicron variant has arrived in Australia after testing confirmed overseas travellers who arrived in Sydney were infected with the new strain. Source: AAP