Coronavirus NSW: Guests kicked out of hotel quarantine by police over infection control fears
A trainee bus driver is among five of the six mystery COVID-19 cases diagnosed in NSW overnight, with another infection connected to an eastern Sydney gym.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Ex-Jujitsu fighter charged over footy brawl in weekend of violence
- Blaze engulfs heritage Double Bay home
Customers inside a Sydney hospital’s cafe and a Zetland gym are on high alert alongside western Sydney bus passengers after NSW Health linked confirmed COVID-19 cases to their locations.
Residents across Sydney, south eastern Sydney and North Sydney are on high alert after NSW Health linked confirmed COVID-19 cases to a Sydney hospital cafe, a Zetland gym and a list of western Sydney bus routes.
The Royal Hospital for Women’s Windscreens Cafe was ordered closed for cleaning on Wednesday after a new confirmed case from City Tattersalls gym visited the cafe on Tuesday August 25.
A statement from NSW Health said the positive case followed the Randwick-based hospital’s COVID-safe measures during the visit and there was “no ongoing risk” to other visitors, patients or staff.
“The person followed the measures required of hospital visitors, including screening checks on entry to the hospital. They developed symptoms later in the day and underwent a COVID-19 test,” the statement said.
“The Royal Hospital for Women is working with the local public health unit to identify and provide information to all close and casual contacts.”
Anyone who attended City Tattersalls between 8am and 2pm on August 19, 21 and 23 is now considered a close contact by NSW Health and should go and get tested, while other gym members have been asked to watch for symptoms
Two cases linked to the gym also travelled by bus on 339 and X39 bus routes to and from Randwick to Martin Place on 21, 22 and 24 August.
Anyone who catches the same routes should monitor themselves for symptoms.
NSW Health is also asking people who went to the Active Dance class at Virgin Gym Zetland at 7:40pm on August 24 to get tested and sef-isolate for 14 days.
Other people who went to the gym between 7:30pm to 10 pm on August 24 to get tested if they show symptoms.
A trainee bus driver included in Wednesday’s case count worked three days while infectious, driving routes in Blacktown, Rouse Hill and Mt Druitt on August 20, 21 and 24.
Passengers on the following bus routes have been asked to watch for symptoms:
20 and 21 August:
755 @ 05:18am from Mt Druitt station to Shalvey shops
755 @ 05:35am from Shalvey shops to Mt Druitt
758 @ 06:01am from Mt Druitt station to St Mary’s station
758 @ 06:35am from St Marys station to Mt Druitt station
723 @ 07:14am from Mt Druitt station to Blacktown station
731 @ 08:15am from Blacktown station to Rouse Hill station
752 @ 09:03am from Rouse Hill station to Blacktown station
755 @ 10:47am from Plumpton marketplace to Mt Druitt station
756 @ 11:29am from Mt Druitt station to Blacktown station
728 @ 12:16pm from Blacktown station to Mt Druitt station
24 August:
6546 @ 14:36pm from St Clare Catholic High School
6583 @ 15:15pm from Patrician Brothers’ College to Blacktown station via
Blacktown South Public School and St Patrick’s Primary School
728 @ 15:34pm from Blacktown station to Mt Druitt station
756 @ 16:32pm from Mt Druitt station to Blacktown station
730 @ 17:25pm from Blacktown station to Castle hill shopping centre
730 @ 16:18pm from Castle hill to Blacktown station
723 @ 19:48pm from Blacktown station to Mt Druitt station
750 @ 20:38pm from Mt Druitt station to Blacktown station
750 @ 21:14pm from Blacktown station to Mt Druitt station
758 @ 21:50pm from Mt Druitt station to Emerson/Luxford
729 @ 22:37pm from Mt Druitt station to Blacktown station
731 @ 23:32pm from Blacktown station to Rouse Hill station
Riverstone High School, Wyndham College and Schofield Public School will remain closed on Thursday as a precaution while possible cases linked to the schools are further tested and confirmed.
COVID CASES LINKED TO VICTORIA
A handful of mystery COVID cases detected yesterday are likely linked to existing community outbreaks that originated from Victoria, rather than a security guard that caught the virus in a quarantine hotel.
NSW reported six new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night — five locally acquired with the source not identified and one a returned traveller in quarantine.
A number of other cases are likely to be confirmed later today.
The mystery cases are: a western Sydney couple in their 40s, a south east Sydney man in his 60s, an unrelated south east Sydney woman in her 50s, and a Sydney woman in her 30s.
One of the cases is a trainee bus driver who worked one shift while infectious but wore a mask.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the risk of infection from that route is low but committed to providing details of where he worked.
NSW Health is still waiting for genome tests to confirm what strain of the virus was contracted by the mystery cases, but Dr Chant said they are likely from outbreaks that originated from Melbourne.
The comments mean the cases are unlikely to be linked with two security guards who caught the virus in a quarantine hotel.
Meanwhile, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller revealed he received $30 million in additional funding for police to run the hotel quarantine operation after asking for the extra cash four weeks ago.
Commissioner Mick Fuller said while security guards were the “second tier” of enforcement to help control mandatory hotel quarantine, and police and ADF were the first, they would continue to be contracted by the government.
This is despite two COVID-19 infections being recently diagnosed in security guards, including one who was busted ignoring self-isolation orders.
Mr Fuller conceded that authorities may “from time to time” find guards that are “not up to scratch” however he said the two infected guards had not breached security laws.
ADDITIONAL CASE ALERTS
Dr Chant said two of the six new cases reported today had attended the City Tattersalls Fitness Centre on Pitt St on August 19, 21 or 23, and a case visited 300 George St on August 19, 20, 21 or 24.
An infected person also visited the Apple and Kmart stores at Broadway Sydney on August 22 between 3.30pm and 5.00pm.
Anyone who attended those venues at those times should watch for symptoms.
Dr Chant said several other cases had been detected after 8pm last night, which they believe are linked to venues currently subject to COVID-19 alerts.
Three schools have also been forced to close due to possible cases of coronavirus in students, related to one of the locally acquired cases.
Riverstone High School, Wyndham College and Schofields Public School, all in Sydney’s northwest, will not be open for on-site learning on Wednesday.
The campuses will be cleaned, and students are being tested.
From these schools, a year 12 student is being retested after their first test was inconclusive, another teenager was “clearly positive” and two other children have tested negative but will be retested as a precaution.
These cases are not included in Wednesday’s numbers
ILLEGAL NSW ENTRANTS FINED
Five more people have been slapped with fines for breaching Public Health Orders, including two men in their 60s who entered NSW illegally.
The two men who travelled from Skoda in Victoria attempted to enter NSW via the Spirit of Progress Bridge on the Hume Highway, Albury, without a valid permit on August 20.
They were told to enter NSW via air and isolate for 14 days. On August 22, police were notified the men had snuck into NSW and were residing at their Central Coast homes.
They were each fined $1000 each.
Also, on Monday, at 11.40pm, police stopped a 49-year-old man driving near the border closure located on the Riverina Highway, Lake Hume Village.
The man did not have a permit to enter NSW. He had been refused entry into the state at another border closure earlier that night. The man was issued with a $1000 fine.
Others fined include a 53-year-old man who failed to self-isolate at a Sydney hotel and a 46-year-old man who allegedly made a false declaration when applying for a permit to enter NSW.
VICTORIA’S LATEST
Victoria has recorded 149 new coronavirus cases and 24 deaths in the past 24 hours.
It comes as data released on Tuesday revealed that 69 per cent of healthcare workers in Victoria infected in the second wave caught the deadly virus at work, primarily while in wards, in common areas like the tea room and while putting on or taking off personal protective gear.
Just 22 per cent of COVID-positive healthcare workers contracted the coronavirus at work during the first wave.
The much-anticipated data was released after the government earlier claimed that just 10 to 15 per cent of healthcare workers caught the virus at work.
The Australian Medical Association said the state government was “not taking this issue seriously”, slamming the decision to trial “fit testing” to ensure N95 masks are tightly sealed to the face — at just one hospital.
TRAVELLERS MOVED OUT OF SYDNEY HOTEL
In a dramatic police operation yesterday, 366 returned travellers were moved out of the TraveLodge Hotel in the Sydney CBD after police deemed it to be unfit for hotel quarantine.
The guests were moved after an audit by police found the TraveLodge failed to meet a “high standard of delivery” of quarantine standards.
“Hotels that do not meet the expectations are rotated out of the hotels roster,” a NSW Police statement said.
Police sources said there had been a number of complaints from guests about the cleanliness of the hotel compared to other more expensive hotels used for quarantine.
They said there was no issue with it being COVID unsafe.
Some guests staying at the TraveLodge in recent days had already been individually moved before the decision was made to relocate everyone.
A TraveLodge spokeswoman said the “most recent site inspection with police and health authorities was conducted on July 28” where they were deemed compliant and retained for the hotel quarantine program.
“We are not aware of any subsequent audit, nor are we aware of any COVID-19 related concerns,” the statement said.
“The TraveLodge Sydney has strict protocols in place around COVID-19 cleaning and these have not been brought into question by the NSW authorities. All hotel rooms are deep cleaned thoroughly before and after guest use,” the statement said.
The concerns about quarantine bungles comes after a Victorian inquiry heard almost all of that state’s current COVID infections were linked to a hotel breach.
HOTEL BLAME GAME ERUPTS
The two most senior figures leading the state in the pandemic yesterday publicly claimed the other was responsible for contracting security guards for hotel quarantine.
The opposing comments come as another bungle saw more than 300 guests booted out of a budget hotel after NSW Police ruled it unfit for quarantine purposes.
It is the latest drama involving the hotel quarantine system after two security guards working in the scheme tested positive for COVID-19, one of whom copped a fine for breaching self isolation rules while waiting for his test results.
Police run hotel quarantine, but yesterday Commissioner Mick Fuller said “government has the responsibility of hiring the security companies” which provide guards for the operation.
Just hours earlier, Premier Gladys Berejiklian dodged questions about why the government contracted security companies to assist police.
“Every decision made in that regard is overseen by the police, so please ask them about those detailed questions,” she said.
Asked what COVID training security guards receive before starting work in quarantine, Ms Berejiklian said: “I’ll have to get that advice from the police but obviously the police would oversee that process.”
Later, when asked the same question, Mr Fuller said: “In terms of the training for security guards that’s a matter for the government departments who hire them”.
The comments were downplayed to The Daily Telegraph last night as merely differences in “semantics”.
“Police still have the lead in relation to (hotel quarantine and) that operation is being run from the police operations centre,” Mr Fuller said earlier.
Hotel quarantine has come under further scrutiny after a security guard caught the virus from a returned US traveller while working in a quarantine hotel, before going on to work at two other Sydney venues.
A second security guard has also tested positive, and was fined for breaching a self isolation direction while waiting for a test. The 22 year old is now in a health facility, and will be charged for his stay.
MORE SYDNEY SCHOOL CLOSURES
Students at three Sydney schools have been rushed into self-isolation and school grounds shut after a COVID-19 scare.
Riverstone High, Wyndham College and Schofields Public School will be non-operational for the day after authorities alerted them of a “possible case” of the virus in a student.
All three schools have shut their gates for deep cleaning as they await confirmation of the test results. These should be confirmed today.
HSC trial exams at Wyndham College will be rescheduled and the school will contact students who have their HSC drama performance.
NSW Health has urged anyone who develops symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, loss of smell/taste, muscle pain, diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting or extreme tiredness to get tested for the virus.
GYM CLOSES AFTER POSITIVE TESTS
The gym and fitness centre at a swanky Sydney club has been shut for sanitisation after a member and a contractor tested positive for COVID-19.
The gym at City Tattersalls Club in Sydney’s CBD is closed for 48 hours as of Tuesday evening for sanitisation after NSW Health confirmed a gym member and a contractor had caught COVID-19.
Members who attended the gym on August 19 up until August 23 will have their details provided to NSW Health for contact tracing purposes.
CEO Marcelo A Veloz confirmed the unfortunate news to members in a letter on Tuesday evening.
“We are collaborating with the department to ensure we can conduct an effective tracing investigation and ensure those who may have come in close contact with these two individuals are contacted, get tested and isolate for a period of 14 days,” Mr Veloz wrote.
“The club has a stringent COVID-Safe Plan in place and only three weeks ago, in addition to our daily sanitising routine, the club engaged a COVID certified contractor to perform a preventive sanitation of all club areas to even further reduce the risk of transmission.”
Mr Veloz reminded members not to attend the club and to get tested if they were experiencing flu-like symptoms.
“I apologise in advance for having to share this news with you,” he wrote.
“Our world as we used to know it is now quite different and while I never envisaged that I would be sending these type of messages to members, rest assured that City Tatts has your health and safety as its first priority.”
BROADWAY SHOPPING COVID SCARE
Retailers inside one of the CBD’s major shopping hubs have been shut tonight after a visit from a confirmed coronavirus case.
A customer who visited Broadway Sydney’s Apple store and Kmart on Saturday August 22 between 3:30 and 5pm has tested positive to COVID-19, according to a statement from Broadway Sydney’s management on Tuesday night.
The statement told customers both locations would undergo cleaning procedures overnight and asked them to watch for symptoms.
The Apple Store and Kmart are tonight undertaking deep cleaning and working with NSW Health to ensure all other required actions are taken to maintain our community’s safety,” Broadway Sydney’s statement said.
“Any customer who visited these stores during this time should monitor their health and, if they develop any COVID-19 symptoms, get tested immediately and self isolate.”
The statement also said customers who went to other retailers or visited at different times to the positive case “should not be alarmed”.
Broadway Sydney was thoroughly cleaned on Saturday night as part of regular COVID-Safe procedures and all unaffected stores will remain open.
Based on current Health advice, customers in our wider community who may have visited other retailers in the centre, or visited at other times should not be alarmed. The centre and all other retailers will remain open.
– additional reporting by Kaitlyn Hudson-O’Farrell, Mark Morri and Eliza Barr