Tennis stars arrive in Adelaide for tournament, head straight to quarantine first
Many of the world’s best tennis players landed in Adelaide on Thursday night ahead of a warm-up tournament. See the pictures.
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Some of the world’s best tennis players have arrived in Adelaide ahead of an Australian Open warm-up tournament at Memorial Drive.
Stars including Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, sisters Serena and Venus Williams, Simona Halep, Dominic Thiem and Naomi Osaka jetted into Adelaide on two international flights on Thursday night, ahead of the tournament, A Day at the Drive, on January 29.
The players and their support staff were whisked into quarantine at the new Majestic M Suites in North Adelaide. They will be given exemptions from quarantine to practise at Memorial Drive, subject to strict conditions.
British player Andy Murray, who did not come to Adelaide but, within days, was due to head to Melbourne for the Australian Open, tested positive for coronavirus.
He was isolating at home in London and was reportedly hopeful of still being able to come to Australia for the Grand Slam, which starts on February 8 in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, just how a cleaner and two guards at the Peppers medi-hotel contracted COVID-19, triggering the Parafield cluster, remains a mystery.
An inquiry into the source of the infections found “no single event or significant breach in infection-control practices”.
Instead, a “combination of events and factors, including minor breaches in infection- control practices and airflow”, may have created conditions for potential transmission of the virus.
The inquiry made seven recommendations, which officials said were all being implemented.
Those recommendations included treating all overseas arrivals as potentially positive and testing all hotel staff.
The inquiry conducted interviews and viewed CCTV footage to try to ascertain how the virus escaped, but found no significant breach in PPE and no direct contact between guests and staff.
However, the inquiry did find the “primary case”, who was not wearing a mask, had opened their room door multiple times, while a security guard, who was wearing a mask, was stationed outside.
Two travellers, who became infected while in the medi-hotel, had one of the guards, who later tested positive, stationed outside their room.
The pair opened the door to their room multiple times, while not wearing masks, and regularly touched the door and door handles to collect food or other deliveries.
Officials also confirmed two people who stayed at Brisbane’s Grand Chancellor Hotel, which is at the centre of an outbreak of the highly contagious British strain, were in quarantine in SA. A third person had left the state.
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