Travel to and from nine African countries will be restricted in response to the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant of concern.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has announced a slate of new border restrictions applied to arrivals from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique.

Only Australian citizens, residents and their immediate families will be permitted to re-enter Australia, and must undergo supervised isolation for 14 days.

States will be responsible for deciding where quarantine is undertaken (i.e. hotel quarantine or elsewhere).

Arrivals from other countries who have been in one of those nine countries in the last 14 days will also be required to isolate.

All flights between the nine countries and Australia will be suspended for 14 days.

Mr Hunt confirmed there are no known cases of the Omicron variant in Australia currently, however 20 people from South Africa are already in isolation in the Howard Springs quarantine facility.

“We know that acting early is what has protected Australia throughout the pandemic.

“We are doing that again: the difference is we now have strong vaccine [uptake].”

Image: Nine News