Rolling coverage: Quarantine worker’s close contacts test negative

All 17 close contacts of the Melbourne hotel quarantine worker with the mutant UK strain of COVID have tested negative to the virus.

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All 17 close contacts linked to the COVID-positive hotel quarantine worker have tested negative, the Department of Health confirmed on Friday night.

Premier Daniel Andrews tweeted it was “good news, but this isn’t over yet”.

“Let’s keep going Victoria. And remember — if you feel sick, get tested,” he wrote.

Earlier on Friday, the department said 16 of the man’s close contacts had tested negative, with one test result pending.

Hundreds of people turned out for COVID-19 testing after the Australian Open hotel worker tested positive to the mutant UK variant.

Lines wrapped around leisure centres, arts centres, council buildings and universities on Friday morning.

The Health Department said on its website that people were waiting up to 90 minutes at testing sites.

This includes Springers Leisure Centre in Keysborough (70 minutes) which is near Noble Park where the infected hotel worker resides.

Wyndham City Council Civic Centre also has an expected wait time of 30 minutes.

It comes as five new sites were opened and hours extended to cope with demand.

The Department has encouraged people to contact testing sites before arriving.

“Please note redirections to alternate sites in close proximity and with lesser wait times may be in place,” the Department said on its website.

“For all drive-through locations you must be in a vehicle to be tested, you cannot walk in or ride a bicycle into a drive-through site.”

The new sites to open include:

Connect Health - Brighton Public Golf Course, Brighton

Monash University - Clayton, Clayton

Gippsland Lakes Complete Health, Lakes Entrance

Drill Hall, Multicultural Hub, Melbourne

Jan Wilson Community Centre - Noble Park, Noble Park North

A testing site at Roxburgh Park Youth and Recreation Centre in Roxburgh Park has been suspended due to high winds.

VACCINE DECISION EXPECTED IN DAYS

A decision on approving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for use in Australia is expected in the next week and a half.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has effectively wrapped up its analysis of the vaccine and will contact the company with a series of final questions on Friday afternoon.

The Herald Sun understands the regulator expects a response within the next week and a half, before it is able to grant formal approval to the drug.

Initially, the approval would be granted for AstraZeneca’s vaccine which is manufactured overseas, with 1.2 million doses due to be delivered to Australia next month.

Doses produced by CSL in Melbourne will have to be checked separately to ensure they are identical in terms of quality and safety, a process which is expected to take several days in the middle of March.

After that, one million AstraZeneca doses will be produced each week to significantly ramp up Australia’s vaccine rollout, which will begin in late February with Pfizer doses.

It is understood the TGA also expects to consider data on as many as a dozen vaccine options over the next 18 months to determine which are safe and effective for Australians.

HOTEL QUARANTINE WORKER HAS UK STRAIN

The hotel worker who traversed Melbourne while unknowingly infected with COVID-19 had the mutant UK virus strain, it has been confirmed.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton revealed the news on Friday morning, saying health authorities “always worked on the assumption” he was carrying the more contagious variant.

“That’s because four of the six residents who’d tested positive at the hotel had that variant identified in them,” he said.

“Where exactly it’s come from is still to be determined.

Daniel Andrews press conference on Friday

“We do need to marry-up that genomics information with the epidemiological information. So the CCTV footage, the interviews, to really understand how transmission might have occurred.”

Mr Andrews said “many questions can’t be answered at the moment” about the UK variant strain.

“The enemy, the challenge is dynamic. We again have to make these constant judgments about risk.”

He said the “most important thing I think should be our primary focus is getting every vulnerable person in the community vaccinated as fast

as possible. That’s what we have to be focused on.”

“We’ll get an update on the vaccination rollout today.

“We’re happy time contribute to a better understanding across the country of the risk that we face right now and I think it’s very clear that’s it’s different than what it was a month ago or six months ago.”

The revelation comes as Victoria recorded zero new locally acquired coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours while three infections were diagnosed in the state’s hotel quarantine system.

More than 14,600 Victorians were swabbed at testing stations across the state on Thursday, the health department said, with the waiting times at some sites stretching longer than three hours.

However, more than 8,000 additional tests were processed on Friday morning bring the total to 22,500.

Premier Daniel Andrews also confirmed 16 of the 17 infected hotel worker’s contacts have tested negative to COVID-19.

“It doesn’t mean that they might not test positive at a later point and that’s why them completing the isolation and doing as we’ve asked them to do is so important,” he said.

There are 24 active cases in Victoria – 23 in hotel quarantine and one locally acquired case.

HOTEL WORKERS PARTIED DAYS BEFORE VIRUS ESCAPED

Hotel quarantine organisers held a party to toast their success in isolating tennis stars just days before it emerged the virus had once again escaped from the program, putting the state on fresh alert.

COVID Quarantine Victoria threw the bash for 60 staff at the View Hotel — one of the Australian Open quarantine hotels — on Sunday.

Three days later, one of their colleagues — a 26-year-old residential support officer — was confirmed to have been infected, possibly with the UK superstrain wreaking havoc around the world.

The case has threatened to ­derail the grand slam tournament and forced the state government to reintroduce restrictions, including mandatory masks indoors.

CQV said it hosted the “small outdoor function” to thank team leaders and site and general managers “for their considerable efforts in ­facilitating the complex quarantine program for the Australian Open”.

Masks are a fixture again on Melbourne’s streets. Picture: Getty Images

“Our staff put themselves on the frontline every day to help keep Victorians safe and we are extremely appreciative of the work they do,” a spokeswoman said.

All staff had returned negative COVID-19 tests, and none are considered close contacts of the man, who did not attend.

But he returned a negative test result on his final shift — before falling sick days later.

Deakin University Chair of Epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett said there were other ways the government could have expressed their thanks to employees.

Professor Bennett said there were strict protocols about frontline hotel quarantine staff working in ‘bubbles’ during their shift and said it would be wise if those same rules were followed outside work hours.

“If you all just throw yourselves together in a social gathering it undermines that. So I do think that’s something that needs to be discussed,” she said.

“Particularly across facilities where you’re bringing together a community of people who are just at that higher risk. There are other ways to say thank you.”

She said it was lucky the COVID-positive worker wasn’t at the party.

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien questioned the wisdom of bringing together so many people who had been working in a highly infectious environment, saying it was a “double fault”.

“It is bad enough they allowed COVID to again escape hotel quarantine into the community, but also holding a party for these particular workers — at our expense — to celebrate what a great job they’ve done, it is beyond ­belief,” he said.

MORE CLOSE CONTACTS TEST NEGATIVE

Of 17 close contacts linked to the COVID-positive hotel quarantine worker, 15 have tested negative and the other two were expected to have their results by Friday.

Victoria’s Department of Health provided the latest update in a tweet on Thursday night, describing the 17 people as household and social primary close contacts.

‘DECENT PROBABILITY’ INFECTED WORKER COULD SPARK OUBREAK

Melbourne University epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely said there was a “decent probability” the COVID-positive worker could spark a community outbreak but he said there were “a lot of question marks”.

Professor Blakely said there were three possible scenarios of how the worker picked up the virus; either from a tennis player or official; from silent transmission among the Grand Hyatt hotel, or from being out and about in the community.

He said genomic sequencing results would be key, because if he had the UK or South African variant that would increase his infectivity.

“It is quite possible he has passed it on to someone else,” he said.

“Whichever of those scenarios it is, there’s a decent probability there are some more cases about to pop up somewhere. I hope that, just like Brisbane and Auckland dodged a bullet, I hope we get lucky and that this chap is not one of the 20 per cent of super spreaders. I’m hoping for the best. The next couple of days we’ll get lots of pieces to fill the jigsaw puzzle.”

University of South Australia Professor and former World Health Organisation epidemiologist Adrian Esterman agreed the next two to three days were critical.

He said that would determine whether Melbourne would have a similar outcome to Perth, where there has not been a single additional case from the COVID-positive hotel quarantine worker.

“If you get to day three without cases then I think everyone can breathe a big sigh of relief and you’ve dodged a bullet,” he said.

“We’re not out of the woods yet. But we’ve got our fingers crossed.”

Deakin University Chair of Epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett said it was “a really good sign” that the man’s family members had returned negative results.

“It’s still early though, they may become positive later,” she said.

“It’s the same with people he worked with.”

Originally published as Rolling coverage: Quarantine worker’s close contacts test negative