Australian health authorities are reporting its first case of the new COVID-19 XE subvariant.
7News reports the positive case of the new variant is an overseas traveller who tested positive after flying into New South Wales (NSW) last week.
NSW health officials reported the first case of the XE variant in their daily update.
"This is the first XE sequence to be identified in NSW and was identified in a recently returned traveller."
Although the variant transmissibility is higher than other variants, XE is not expected to cause severe COVID-19 infections or a stronger ability to evade vaccine immunity.
There is little knowledge about the new variant but experts believe there may be cause for greater concern with other variants being detected in Africa and Europe, 7News reports.
Australia is easing its restrictions at its border, on Monday dropping the requirement of a negative test result for overseas travellers, prompting concerns that more subvariants could spread undetected.
The news comes as NSW reports 15,367 new COVID-19 cases today with 16 people who died with COVID-19.
