Melbourne man tests positive for COVID-19 after SA hotel quarantine stay

Health authorities say they are investigating who a man made contact with between leaving Adelaide quarantine and testing positive in Melbourne.

The “most likely” source of a Victorian man’s positive COVID-19 test on Tuesday morning is transmission at the Playford medi-hotel, Chief Public Health officer Nicola Spurrier says.

A Melbourne man has tested positive to the coronavirus after returning home from hotel quarantine in South Australia.

The man in his 30s developed symptoms on Saturday and was tested yesterday, returning a positive test today.

He arrived home at Wollert, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, on May 4, after returning to Australia from India and going into hotel quarantine in Adelaide.

Prof Nicola Spurrier said SA Health was exploring several hypotheses for how the man may have contracted COVID-19 – including whether he might have been infected before coming into South Australia and had an extended incubation period.

SA Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Stephen Wade Picture: Keryn Stevens

But she said it was “probably most likely that there’s been transmission in the Playford Hotel”, where the man stayed during his quarantine.

Professor Spurrier said the man was not believed to be infectious during his time in Adelaide.

Her team is still investigating who he had made contact with after checking out of the hotel on Tuesday, May 4, but it is understood he flew straight home to Melbourne once discharged.

The man was in a room next door to another traveller who tested positive for COVID-19.

That traveller was transferred to Tom’s Court.

Genomic testing will help determine whether the two infections are linked.

Prof Spurrier said CCTV footage was being reviewed and medi-hotel staff were being tested, along with everybody who was on the same level of the Playford as the Melbourne man who contracted the virus.

The incident follows an outbreak stemming from the Peppers medi-hotel last year, which triggered a statewide lockdown.

Health Minister Stephen Wade defended the state’s hotel quarantine system as “nation leading”.

“In particular we have the COVID-19 positive facility at Tom’s Court and this case highlights the benefits of that because the positive case was taken out of the Playford, reducing the risk,” he said.

The Playford Hotel in Adelaide’s CBD. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Prof Spurrier said “no breaches whatsoever” had been detected at the Playford Hotel.

“What people have seen over the last couple of months in WA, Queensland and NSW is that despite having no breaches at all in any PPE use … and using CCTV footage and having different methods of security, it is still possible for this virus to be transmitted,” she said.

“We don’t need to be scared about it but we do need to be aware of it, which is exactly why we do follow-up with people who have left quarantine.”

Opposition Health spokesman Chris Picton said the incident highlighted the risks of using “decades-old CBD hotels as makeshift quarantine facilities during a pandemic”.

“Labor has long called for a specific quarantine facility outside of the CBD, along the lines of Howard Springs in the Northern Territory, to reduce the risk of another lockdown, which would devastate our economy,” he said.

There were no new cases of COVID-19 reported in SA today.

A man and woman in their 30s remain in the Royal Adelaide Hospital in stable conditions.

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