Covid-19 escaped Playford medi-hotel via the air, through briefly opened door, report finds

It may have taken just 18 seconds for Covid-19 to escape an Adelaide medi-hotel room and infect a Melbourne man when he opened his door, a report says.

The “close timing” of medi-hotel doors opening is being blamed for the latest Covid-19 leak from an Adelaide quarantine facility that spread to Victoria, an official review found.

The Advertiser revealed on Tuesday new safety measures would be introduced after food delivery was the likely cause of the leakage at the CBD Playford Hotel earlier this month.

The inquiry identified four patients linked to the B1.617 variant, first detected in India, who flew from the Maldvives to Singapore but three arrived in Adelaide on April 19.

A Melbourne man, aged in his 30s dubbed case A, tested positive four days since leaving the North Tce facility and more than three weeks after flying from the Maldives.

A leak investigation, which involved extensive testing, scouring CCTV, interviewing staff, reviewing worker and phone records, airconditioning checks, recommended an overhaul in six key areas across the medi-hotel system.

The review, by SA Health’s Communicable Disease Control Branch, found the leak most likely occurred after two incidents on May 3 that occured 30 minutes apart.

Adjacent room doors were opened and contaminated corridor air, causing “aerosol transmission”.

The first occurred when the Melbourne traveller, opened his door to collect his meal 18 seconds after another man, aged in his 20s who was in a first-floor adjoining room with a woman aged her 30s, in an adjacent first-floor room.

A review of CCTV found a similar situation occurred later that day, in which doors opened within 12 minutes of each other but it was unclear if the two men wore disposable masks.

None of the 162 Playford guests, including 32 on the same floor, or 104 staff returned positive retests.

The review, published Wednesday, also raised concerns about a possible “very long” incubation for case A, which would be one of the world’s longest. But the review identified “no high-risk” infection control blunders or breaches for the virus leak that sparked Victoria’s latest outbreak.

“Therefore, while there is no single conclusive cause of transmission, it is highly likely the close timing of doors opening and closing between adjacent rooms was responsible given the clear role of aerosol transmission of this virus,” the review found.

“A review of the timing and placement of food/goods/waste/linen outside of guest’s rooms is likely to reduce the risk of further episodes of similar transmission events.”

Findings include not having close contacts of infectious patients in adjacent rooms and increasing testing advice to guests after they leave quarantine including an additional text message on day 21 to remind them to get checked if they develop flu-like symptoms.

Further changes involve establishing a “protocol” for opening doors including forcing guests to wear disposable masks, advice on removing protective equipment and special eye equipment.

Other measures include creating special “zones” for food, rubbish or laundry collection and delivery, having bulk drop-offs, reviewing ventilation.

Premier Steven Marshall said the government listened to the experts but ruled out a dedicated quarantine facility for now.

“There was certainly no recommendation in the report for anything over and above what we have at the moment in terms of the physical infrastructure,” he said.

‘We do have a dedicated Covid-positive hotel in South Australia and let’s be very clear, it doesn’t really matter where the hotel is located. This is a disease which knows no geographic location.”

Renewing his calls for a dedicated facility, Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas said the report was “yet another example of medi-hotels failing to contain the virus and putting our community at risk”.

“Decades-old hotels are built for tourists on holiday not for quarantine during a pandemic,” he said.

“While we have so many people who are not vaccinated, we need purpose-built quarantine facilities to contain this virus and protect our community.”