Hotel cluster mystery in spotlight in the US

A US public health expert has labelled the mystery of Hotel Grand Chancellor COVID-19 cluster as ‘worrisome’.

THE mystery of the Hotel Grand Chancellor COVID-19 cluster in Brisbane has been branded as “worrisome” by a high profile scientist in the US who states the virus is airborne and a lack of ventilation is hampering its control.

Despite thousands of deaths from the virus in America, the breakout in the quarantine hotel has attracted the attention of epidemiologist, former Harvard scholar and Fellow of the Federation of American Scientists.

Eric-Feigl-Ding who has almost 400,000 followers on Twitter has posted television reports of the spread of the UK B117 strain in Queensland.

“To be clear, we’ve known that SARS-CoV-2 is airborne for a while now, despite deniers and downplayers. But the B117 strain is even more transmissible. And aerosol studies show that coronavirus is persistent and stable up to 16 hours in stagnant air.

The Hotel Grand Chancellor in Brisbane's Spring Hill. Six people linked to the building tested positive to the highly-contagious UK variant of the coronavirus and resulted in the hotel being evacuated, with guests moved to other quarantine hotels. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“Ventilation is key. Both ventilation and masks are needed to reduce risk indoors and most buildings are not ventilated well enough,” the public health expert said.

Dr Feigl-Ding reveals that the UK strain can be 80 per cent more transmissible.

The six-person cluster at the Brisbane hotel remains a mystery to Queensland public health officials and the situation is under review.

The Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young at yesterday’s press conference said she has considered the possibility of the virus travelling through the air conditioning system but there was as yet no evidence of this.

Meanwhile, a group of Australian doctors has written to the government calling for “indoor air safety” to be part of the Hotel Grand Chancellor probe.