The ban covers flights from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Seychelles, Malawi, and Mozambique.
"The Australian government will suspend all flights from the nine southern African countries for a period of 14 days as a matter of precaution", Hunt said during a briefing.
According to the health minister, non-Australian citizens who have been in the aforementioned countries within the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter Australia. Australian citizens coming from those countries will be required to spend two weeks in quarantine.
If a person who has visited one of the nine countries in the last two weeks is already in Australia, they will be required to go into quarantine and get tested for the coronavirus disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday identified the new South African strain as one of concern, as it is reported to carry a high number of mutations — 32 — which possibly makes it more transmissible and dangerous. The WHO has dubbed it Omicron, the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.