Family in medi-hotel quarantine after man tests positive after return from India
A family of four is in medi-hotel quarantine after one of them tested positive for coronavirus after flying back to South Australia.
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South Australia’s success in containing COVID-19 was helping ease fears, but people were not becoming complacent, SA Health says.
Reporting one new case Sunday – a man in his 30s who had been repatriated from India – acting chief medical officer Michael Cusack said the lessons from Victoria were keeping South Australians on guard.
“With the degree of anxiety that’s being transmitted from our colleagues in Victoria, I don’t think we’re at the point where there’s complacency,” he said.
“Particularly in those border areas in the South-East because that’s where our risk lies at the moment.”
The new case arrived on a repatriation flight from India on Tuesday, August 4.
“He has been in quarantine in a medi-hotel since he arrived,” Dr Cusack said.
“On day one he had a test and that was a negative test. But the day 12 test has returned a positive result.
“He has mild symptoms – just a cough – and he remains in medi-hotel isolation.”
The man was travelling with three family members. All four people were transferred to another medi-hotel which better enabled the man who tested positive to be separated from the other three.
There were now seven active cases in SA, with the source of each case known.
Dr Cusack said there had been 4101 tests conducted, with a decrease not unexpected following the dissolution of the Thebarton cluster. Dr Cusack said SA was well placed to be able to accept the planned flight of international students into Adelaide.
“I don’t have reservations,” he said. “We’ve gained a lot of experience from the repatriation flights as to how to best manage those coming from overseas who could clearly bring with them a component of risk of COVID-19.”
On concerns about the efficacy of D95+ masks manufactured by SA company Detmold, Dr Cusack said they remained safe for treating COVID-19 patients but might not be suitable for surgery.
The masks had passed local and international tests and were efficient at filtering out particulates.
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They were made of high quality material and had a degree of imperviousness to fluids – however, a new laboratory in Australia had found they were not fully resistant to fluids.
“In terms of protecting staff who are potentially caring for COVID patients, more often than not it is the particle filtration which is crucial,” he said.
If there was any doubt about exposure to a squirt of fluid or blood, a face shield should also be used. SA has about 120,000 to 150,000 face shields in stock – and has contracted another manufacturer, Fusetech, to make 7000 shields a day.
Health Minister Stephen Wade said SA Health was being abundantly cautious in protecting staff.
“I’m sure Detmold will continue to work with SA Health to make sure its masks are fit for purpose,” he said.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said Detmold and Victorian company Medcon had been contracted to supply 150 million face masks for the national stockpile.
Meanwhile, official figures show hundreds of travellers had entered SA from Victoria in the past week, becoming the biggest visitors to the state despite a hard border.
