Health Minister Greg Hunt announced on Saturday that Australia will close its border to any non-citizens arriving from nine southern African countries in response to the emergence of the Omicron COVID variant.
Australian citizens, residents and their dependents arriving from these countries will need to go into immediate supervised quarantine for 14 days.
Anyone who has already arrived in the country and who's been in any of the nine listed southern African countries within the past 14 days must immediately isolate themselves and be tested for COVID-19 and follow jurisdictional quarantine requirements.
Australia will also suspend all flights from nine southern African countries for a period of 14 days as a matter of precaution.
The nine countries are South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, the Seychelles, Malawi, and Mozambique.
In a press conference, the Health Minister said there were no known cases of the new Omicron variant to report in Australia but wanted to act "quickly" and take "early action".
"We've taken early action in the past. We are doing that again," he said.
"The difference is that we now have strong vaccines, we have one of the highest levels of coverage in the world, we have one of the most recently vaccinated populations in the world, and we have strong public health and social measures, and we also have, most significantly, as well-prepared hospital system."
Australia's chief medical officer Paul Kelly said they are taking a "precautionary approach" because information around the new variant is still coming to hand.
"At this point, other than understanding that it is transmissible between humans and is transmitting particularly in South Africa, but also in those surrounding countries, we do not, at this point, have any clear indication that it is more severe, or any definite indication in relation to the [efficacy of the] vaccine," Kelly said.
"They're crucial points. It's the reason why we're taking this precautionary approach, which is proportionate to that risk, and putting in place the measures that the minister has outlined in relation to that."
The new variant was discovered when South African scientists announced they'd stumbled on a worrying new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The discovery of a new coronavirus variant named Omicron triggered global alarm on Friday as countries rushed to suspend travel from southern Africa.
The EU and the UK were the first to impose travel restrictions on a group of southern African countries.
After the UK placed six southern African countries back on its red list, the EU suspended travel from the region after the discovery of a new COVID-19 variant.
Following the EU and the UK's decision to impose travel restrictions, the United States announced they would restrict travel for non-US citizens from eight African countries starting on Monday (local time).
There was no indication of how long the bans will remain in place, but President Joe Biden said in a statement that moving forward he will be "guided by what the science and my medical team advises".
