Howard Salkow

Senior Journalist

A Nigerian traveller who flew into Cairns on December 3 has the Omicron variant and is now in hospital in Cairns, after testing positive in hotel quarantine.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said genome sequencing had confirmed the variant in the traveller, according to a NewsCorp report.

The flight was JQ950 from Sydney to Cairns and this means that everyone on that flight has been deemed to be a close contact, not just those who were immediately seated around this individual, said Ms D’Ath.

It was reported that Ms D’Ath said because it was a flight from a hot spot, the majority of people on the flight should already be quarantining in some form unless they had been transiting from elsewhere.

Chief Health Officer Dr Peter Aitken said the man was well, however there was a chance he could be moved to Townsville.

“We’re working through that whole case, the whole flight and identifying anyone there, and that’s under way at the present stage,” he said.