Positive COVID test for Melbourne Holiday Inn quarantine worker, returned traveller
Two new cases - including a food and beverage employee - have been detected at a Melbourne hotel where a worker tested positive to the UK strain.
NSW
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A second worker at the Holiday Inn quarantine site and a returned traveller who has already completed quarantine have tested positive to COVID-19.
The quarantine returned traveler had already completed quarantine and left the facility on Sunday.
She got tested after an initial hotel quarantine staff member tested positive on Sunday to the virus - found later to be the more infectious UK strain.
Her result came out as positive on Tuesday, despite testing negative a number of times during her 14-day quarantine.
Late on Tuesday, Health Minister Martin Foley also confirmed a food and beverage worker at the quarantine hotel has also tested positive.
The Department of Health and Human Services says past residents of the Holiday Inn who completed their quarantine period on Sunday must now isolate for 14 days.
“We are in contact with this group. This will come as difficult news to them, but we are being as cautious as possible in our response to this outbreak,” the department tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.
The department says a public health response is underway, and the individual is being interviewed.
“Early indications are that the individual has not left her home since exiting Hotel Quarantine on 7 February, other than to obtain a test in a COVIDsafe setting,” the department tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.
Updates to any exposure sites, primary close contacts and other information will be provided as soon as it’s known.
Premier Daniel Mr Andrews earlier on Tuesday said there was a “working theory” and “very significant concerns” regarding aerosol transmission of the highly infectious strains within hotels.
“They do present us with a very significant challenge,” the Premier said of the highly infectious variants.
“Out of the Holiday Inn, the CCTV footage review, from all the other checking that we do, there’s no obvious infection prevention and control breach.
“It’s not like someone’s obviously done the wrong thing, and that’s a significant concern to us.”
Health authorities are also hoping genomic sequencing will help provide some insights into how the first worker at the Holiday Inn, who wore full personal protective equipment, including a surgical mask and face shield, became infected.
At least 136 hotel quarantine workers at the Holiday Inn had been identified as primary close contacts and were told to isolate and get tested before the second worker tested positive.
A number of potential public exposure sites have also been identified in Melbourne’s northwest suburbs with anyone who has visited the “tier 1” sites during the times listed is required to immediately isolate, get tested and remain isolated for 14 days from the time they were at the site.
Testing capacity near exposure sites in Melbourne’s northwest is also being enhanced.
It comes after another hotel quarantine worker – a 26-year-old man from Noble Park based at the Australian Open quarantine program – also returned a positive COVID-19 test result last Wednesday.
Genomic sequencing confirmed he had also been infected with the UK strain.
The health department said more than 61,000 Victorians had been tested since Thursday morning.
VICTORIAN HOTELS ‘BETTER THAN NSW’: ANDREWS
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has declared his state’s hotel quarantine system has “higher standards” of safety precautions than NSW.
Mr Andrews was forced to defend the revamped Victorian quarantine operation after three people separately caught COVID-19 in quarantine hotels in the past week.
With caps on the number of returning travellers allowed into the country each week set to increase on February 15, Mr Andrews indicated Victoria will continue to take less people that NSW.
From next week, 3010 people will fly into Sydney airport from overseas each week.
Mr Andrews on Tuesday indicated his state doesn’t have the capacity to handle that number safely.
“We will not be getting to 3000, because I don’t believe that 3000 would be safe. That’s my judgment, and I’ll be accountable for that,” he said.
Victoria’s cap will increase from 1120 people to 1310 next week.
Asked to justify his comments about Victorian hotel quarantine operating with “higher standards” than NSW, Mr Andrews said: “I can say it because it’s true”.
“There’s not 3,500 private security (guards) working in our system. Do I need to go any further than that?”
“We’ve had the rest of the country copy what we’re doing,” Mr Andrews said.
“I’m very confident that we have a system that is worthy of being copied by others.”
Victoria’s hotel quarantine system relaunched with stricter protocols after a quarantine leak led to more than 800 deaths during the state’s second COVID wave.
Unlike in NSW, all staff working in Victorian hotel quarantine are employed full time and prevented from taking other jobs.
Mr Andrews on Tuesday also said airconditioning systems have been overhauled in quarantine hotels, and carpets replaced with lino in common areas to facilitate industrial-strength cleaning.
EU WON’T BLOCK AUSTRALIA’S PFIZER VACCINES
Europe will not delay the first doses of Pfizer vaccine bound for Australia despite moves to block shipments of the jab from the continent.
The EU’s ambassador to Australia Dr Michael Pulch has confirmed the first doses of the vaccine due to arrive in Australia at the end of this month will not be stopped.
“Australia can indeed rely on deliveries from Europe,” he told the ABC.
“My colleagues in Brussels have assured the Australian side that they will work with them on a smooth authorisation process.”
Last month the EU introduced new rules on exports of COVID-19 vaccines produced within Europe, which could be used to block shipments.
Under the laws, any company based in the EU would first have to submit their vaccine export plans to national authorities for approval.
Dr Pulch said the new rules were simply to increase “transparency” after several pharmaceuticals told the EU they would have to reduce delivery of vaccines to Europe.
“We felt that we needed to get a grip on the situation’” he said.
“We had … Pfizer-BioNTech … and AstraZeneca, who out of the blue announced they would only deliver 40 per cent of what they had promised.
“So we felt we had to put down a marker here and develop some guardrails if you wish for co-operation with these companies.”
Australia is expecting the first shipment of 80,000 Pfizer doses at the end of February.
Australia’s vaccine rollout will mean a “new normal” where some people still contract the virus, but they won’t end up seriously ill in hospital or die, experts say.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said later in 2021 as the general population gets a vaccine and the country is trying to “get back to some sort of normal” there will still be COVID-19 cases, but they won’t be fatal or put pressure on the public health system.
“That new normal will almost certainly mean that we will have virus circulating in Australia,” he said.
“But if we can protect from the disease, that is the main aim at the moment in terms of preventing people going to hospital, preventing people going into intrinsic care and preventing death.”
Prof Kelly said the two vaccines due to roll out in Australia first - the Pfizer and the AstraZeneca jabs - both protect serious illness and death at a rate “approaching 100 per cent”.
He cautioned people against spreading “small amounts of information quickly, without looking at it carefully” amid reports the AstraZeneca vaccine wasn’t effective against the South African strain.
“There is no evidence anywhere in the world that AstraZeneca’s effectiveness against severe infection is affected by any of these variants of concern,” he said.
Prof Kelly Australia has reported 87 cases of the UK strain and 18 cases of the South African strain of COVID-19 among mostly returned travellers as of February 5.
Prof Kelly also announced he was waiting on a proposal from NSW on how to best manage post-hotel quarantine after a confirmed case on Day 16.
“We will be looking at that later this week,” he said.
NO NEW LOCAL NSW COVID CASES
A returned traveller who tested positive to COVID-19 two days after leaving hotel quarantine is still undergoing “comprehensive” tests as NSW Health investigates the nature and timing of the man’s infection.
It’s still not known how the man contracted COVID-19, but NSW Health is investigating whether he could have caught the virus while in hotel quarantine.
Alternatively, the case may be an historical infection.
Ten of the man’s close contacts have now returned negative COVID tests.
NSW recorded no new local cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday.
With the source of the returned traveller’s infection still under investigation, NSW Health on Tuesday said the state had marked 23 days without new cases in the community.
There were two cases detected in returned overseas travellers.
The results reflect 7,315 tests processed in the reporting period.
COVID ADVICE ESCALATED FOR DINERS
Patrons of two venues south of Sydney have been ordered into 14-day quarantine as health officials continue to investigate Wollongong’s returned traveller COVID case.
People who visited the Headlands Hotel’s beer garden in Austinmer on February 2 between 1-3pm or the Bulli Beach Cafe on February 6 between 1:30-4pm are now close contacts, according to a statement from NSW Health.
The statement said punters have been asked to get tested and complete two weeks of isolation regardless of their test result, while people who visited either venue outside of the times are listed as casual contacts.
“Anyone who was in the beer garden of the Headlands Hotel or who dined in at the Bulli Beach Café at the times listed below is now considered a close contact and should immediately get tested and self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result,” a NSW Health statement read.
“Anyone who was at the Headlands Hotel (in all areas other than the beer garden) and anyone who got takeaway from the Bulli Beach Café at the times listed below is now considered a casual contact who should monitor for symptoms.”
“If any symptoms develop, get tested immediately and self-isolate until you receive a negative result.”
It comes as the returned male traveller tested positive on Saturday, two days after leaving hotel quarantine at Sofitel Wentworth, visiting a string of venues around Wollongong.
Authorities have yet to confirm where the man caught the virus.
NSW HEALTH INVESTIGATE IF CASE CAUGHT COVID IN HOTEL
State health authorities are investigating whether a returned traveller who tested positive to COVID-19 two days after leaving hotel quarantine caught the virus while in the hotel.
The man from the Wollongong area left quarantine at the Sofitel Wentworth hotel on February 2.
He returned two negative tests during his two-week quarantine at the hotel.
In a statement, a NSW Health spokesman said “several” returned travellers at the Sofitel Wentworth had positive test results while the man was in quarantine.
Health authorities contacted the man on February 4 as part of increased testing protocols introduced last week, which require returned travellers to get tested two days after leaving hotel quarantine.
He was tested last Friday, with the positive test returned on Saturday.
NSW Health is now undertaking “comprehensive testing” to find the source of the virus and identify whether it is one of the more infectious strains.
Authorities are also investigating any potential links between the man and other positive cases in quarantine.
A NSW Health spokesman said the day-16 testing protocols were introduced after people in other jurisdictions developed COVID-19 infections after leaving quarantine.
Returned travellers with no symptoms are not required to self-isolate while awaiting their day-16 test.
The man visited a number of venues in the Wollongong area and a cafe at Brighton Le Sands before he was notified of the positive test. Ten of his close contacts were identified, with seven returning negative tests as of Monday.
NSW authorities classified the case as “under investigation” and not a case in the community but the federal government considers the man’s case to be one of “community transmission”.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said it was deemed a local infection as the case was “within the community outside the hotel quarantine system”.
LESSON ON HOW TO DELIVER COVID VACCINE
Training on how to administer the COVID-19 jab is now being given to immunisation providers and administrative staff in the lead up to the first vaccines becoming available in Australia.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the training will be “critical to ensuring that vaccination occurs in a safe and effective way”.
Mr Hunt yesterday dismissed new data suggesting the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine only offers “minimal protection” against the South African virus strain — despite that country suspending plans to use the AstraZeneca jab for its frontline workers.
Preliminary data from one study suggested the AstraZeneca jab only offered “minimal protection against mild-moderate disease” caused by the South African variant of the virus. Mr Hunt said Australian health experts still trust both the AstraZeneca and the Pfizer vaccines against the new strains.
“There is currently no evidence to indicate a reduction in the effectiveness of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines and preventing severe disease and death,’’ he said.
“That is the fundamental task to protect the health of, not just Australians, but people all around the world.”
The Therapeutic Goods Administration is expected to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine in coming days.
Meanwhile, a massive vaccination campaign in Israel has led to a drop in hospital infections and new COVID cases.
Last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recent results for over-60s showed a 26 per cent reduction in hospitalisations and around a 45 per cent reduction in cases.
Since December, more than 3.4 million of Israel’s nine million people have received a coronavirus vaccine jab in what is seen as the world’s fastest per-capita vaccination campaign.
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