At the National Cabinet meeting on Thursday, the Australian leaders agreed to tighten the definition of “close contact” exposure to COVID-19 while cutting the isolation time as part of major changes to dealing with the pandemic, per 7News.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, “those states will define a close contact as a fully vaccinated “household contact, or household-like (contact), of a confirmed case only.”

“You are only a close contact if you are, effectively, living with someone or have been in an accommodation setting with someone for more than four hours with someone who has actually got COVID,” he added.

Additional quotes

“There is increasing evidence to the reduced severity of the Omicron variant.”

“We need to reset how we think about the pandemic, and how we manage ourselves and the things we need to do as governments.”

“Omicron is a game-changer.”

Market reaction

AUD/USD is meandering near daily lows of 0.7245, in reaction to the above announcements. The spot is trading flat on the day, having reversed entire gains.