This is the day.

Good morning, I'm Dr. Kerry Chan from New South Wales Health with the COVID-19 update.

There is a total of 25 cases of COVID-19 with the Omicron variant in New South Wales. Yesterday, Croatia, Nepal. a who have now confirmed the new variant within their borders.

All international travelers are now required to take a COVID-19 test

within one day of leaving for the US.

Omicron cases have been confirmed in at least 17 states.

All of them are mild as far as we know.

And here in the UK, scientists have been increasingly expressing their concern.

Some have suggested that there could already be more than a thousand cases here.

We've probably already got more than a thousand cases in the UK at the moment and it is increasing.

Others have been pointing to signs that it could be spreading faster than our current dominant strain, Delta, and could out-compete it within weeks.

Scientists in South Africa say the new omicron variant of the coronavirus appears to

spread more than twice as quickly as Delta, which has so far

be the most contagious.

There's a lot of speculation.

So today we're bringing you an update on what we do know about Omicron and how quickly it's spreading.

From The Guardian, I'm Madeline Finley, and this is Science Weekly. One of the questions scientists are looking to answer is when Omicron first arrived in the UK. Now this might not seem that important, but if Omicron

has been here for months and is only just being picked up now, that might suggest it's unlikely to out-compete

Delta. If it arrived more recently, it'll take longer to get a clear picture on transmission.

It's something science correspondent

Nicola Davis has been reporting on. There's been slightly different opinions

but my colleagues and I have been talking to experts and Dr Jeffrey Barrett who's

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