Coronavirus NSW: Sydney COVID cluster tied to Victoria
Genomic sequencing has revealed for the first time that COVID-19 has spread from Melbourne to Sydney.
NSW Coronavirus News
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Genomic sequencing has linked a unique Victorian strain of COVID-19 to Sydney’s Crossroads Hotel outbreak, for the first time revealing the virus has spread from Melbourne to NSW.
The genomic sequence “has not been seen before in NSW”, official NSW Health advice stated late yesterday.
Officials are still conducting investigations to gain certainty around the initial cause of the Casula hotel outbreak – it is understood close examination of truck and logistics companies linked to Victoria is being undertaken in a bid to identify patient zero.
These laboratory results will also provide some level of comfort to NSW authorities that the most recent local outbreak is not the result of the state having missed latent community transmission.
The genomic sequencing undertaken in a laboratory confirmed that the Victorian strain of the virus had leaked into the border area at Albury, the Western Sydney area and possibly Sutherland as well.
The analysis showed four NSW cases had the Victorian strain.
They were:
-A man from the Blue Mountains who had dinner at the Cross Roads hotel on July 3 and had not been to Melbourne
-The man who arrived in Sydney with a caravan from Melbourne on July 7
-Two Albury border cases – a woman in her 30s who travelled from Melbourne and her family member who had not travelled from Melbourne.
“(They) are part of a new genomic cluster linked to other Victorian cases. This cluster has not been seen before in NSW,” the health advice stated.
“Other cases linked to the hotel are being sequenced. This would indicate that the Crossroads is most likely linked to Melbourne.”