Mystery over how Victorian COVID case was caught at Playford medi-hotel, Spurrier says

SA Health is scrambling to understand how a COVID patient at an Adelaide medi-hotel infected a man in a neighbouring room.

Investigations are yet to show how the COVID virus escaped in the Playford medi-hotel to infect a man who tested positive only after he had flown home to Victoria.

Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said investigators were reviewing CCTV footage and checking the hotel’s ventilation system.

“Nothing has come out of those investigations to give us an explanation how that person who returned to Victoria could have got infected,” she said.

Prof Spurrier said all staff who had worked at the hotel during the period April 25-May 4 had now been tested, and 104 staff working at the hotel on Tuesday had also been tested as well as all guests currently on level three, with negative results.

“There is no current risk to anyone at the Playford,” she said.

The Playford Hotel, where a man was staying when he contracted COVID and then left for Melbourne. Picture: Simon Cross

The 34 guests who had been in level three at the time of the infection have all been contacted by contact tracing staff including 10 remaining in South Australia who have to go into another 14 days quarantine.

They are allowed to quarantine at home, although three have had to go to a medi-hotel due to unsuitable conditions at their homes for quarantine.

South Australia has recorded no new cases of COVID, with 15 active cases and two people in hospital – a man in his 30s in a stable condition and a woman in her 30s in the RAH intensive care unit.

Professor Spurrier noted the woman’s case was a reminder even young people can be left dangerously ill by the virus.

Test on Wednesday confirmed the Victorian COVID-19 case was linked to a person staying in the Playford medi-hotel before they were transferred to the Tom’s Court facility after testing positive.

Prof Spurrier said genomic tests confirmed the link between the two people in neighbouring rooms in the Playford.

“Investigations into the precise cause of transmission are ongoing,” she said.

“We have confirmed the vast majority of medi-hotel staff who were working at the time had their required daily testing and there are only five medi-hotel staff that we are still following up.”

At this stage, there have been no new cases linked to this case.

SA has now restricted entry to people who have visited several high-risk coronavirus exposure sites in Melbourne.

The infected man had visited multiple sites before testing positive on Monday, including a train trip after the Richmond and Geelong AFL match on Friday, May 7. Hundreds of football fans are now being urged to get tested.

Anyone who has visited the high-risk exposure sites, listed on the SA Health website, is banned from entering SA.

Anyone already in the state who had visited any of the sites must immediately quarantine and have a test on days one, five and 13; they must also wear a face mask for 14 days after the end of the quarantine period.

Officials now concede travellers quarantining in medi-hotels may be infectious with COVID-19 for days before being moved to the Tom’s Court facility for positive cases.

They say a person could be infectious prior to COVID-19 symptoms appearing and daily checks are done to check for signs.

However, people could be infectious for up to two days before symptoms showed, while others did not show any symptoms.

That left a window of several days where an infectious person may be in a medi-hotel with travellers who had tested negative.

An SA Health statement said all medi-hotel guests were tested for COVID-19 within 24 hours of their arrival in South Australia, on day five, and again on day 13.

“An extra swab on day nine is also available to all travellers,” it states. “In addition to the required COVID-19 tests, travellers receive daily symptom checks by the medi-hotel healthcare team and are tested immediately if they show any signs or symptoms.”

The statement said people found to have coronavirus were “moved safely and securely by ambulance to the dedicated COVID-19 facility as soon as notification is received of a positive test result”.