Coronavirus NSW: Fears COVID strain leaked from Sydney hotel quarantine
NSW has identified a strain of COVID-19 that appears to have leaked from a hotel quarantine facility in Circular Quay. It comes as NSW recorded just three new virus cases overnight and Sydney bus drivers threaten to strike unless masks are made mandatory.
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A security guard who “most probably” contracted COVID-19 from a returned traveller from the US did not work at Bankstown Central Shopping Centre, NSW Health has clarified.
In a statement released on Tuesday night, a NSW Health spokesman said earlier comments from Dr Kerry Chant stating the man had attended the Bankstown shopping centre on August 8 were incorrect.
A separate COVID case attended the shopping centre while infectious, the statement said.
The security guard worked at Flemington Market and Parramatta Local Court while infectious, after seemingly contracting the disease while working at the Marriott quarantine hotel in Circular Quay.
“At this point there is no indication of additional risk to the community from the hotel,” the spokesman said.
“NSW Health advises the guard was not infectious when he worked there.”
Investigations into how the guard contracted the virus at the quarantine hotel are ongoing.
Close contacts of the security guard have been identified and told to self isolate.
Genome sequencing of the man’s infection shows it is similar to a strain of the disease identified in a traveller who tested positive on August 4 after returning to Australia from the US.
“The guard has been interviewed and there’s been no indications of (quarantine) breaches,” Dr Chant said.
She said it would be “inappropriate” to speculate as to how he contracted the virus as the matter is still being investigated.
“It’s very important with these types of investigations that we keep a very open mind and work through it thoroughly,” she said.
There is no rule in place stopping security guards who work at quarantine hotels from working elsewhere.
“They may have other roles as part of their employment with their security company,” NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker said.
She would not identify what security company the guard worked for.
The security guard developed symptoms on August 11, before a positive test was recorded on Saturday.
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NSW RECORDS THREE NEW CASES
NSW has recorded just three new COVID-19 infections overnight, including one mystery case.
The cases mark the lowest number recorded in a 24-hour period in more than a month.
The new infections include one linked to the southwestern Sydney funeral cluster, one under investigation and one person in hotel quarantine.
Despite the promising news, NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty warned COVID-19 was continuing to circulate in the community and high rates of testing were critical.
NSW Health also issued fresh warnings about a string of Sydney venues.
Anyone who attended Bankstown Central Shopping Centre on August 8 between 10am-3pm and Sydney Markets Flemington on August 9 at 8am-4pm are considered “close contacts” and should monitor for symptoms.
Dr McAnulty urged people to remain on high alert and “assume you have COVID” if you have flu-like symptoms as the virus continues to circulates undetected in NSW.
“Even though the number of new cases has been low, there have been 16 cases in the past four weeks that have not been linked to clusters, mainly in western and south western Sydney,” he said.
LOCAL SPORT GUIDELINES TIGHTENED
It comes as tighter restrictions have been put in place for community sport for six weeks, while a group of 20 independent schools and Greater Public Schools have cancelled all winter sports.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant wrote to community sporting organisations on Friday, ahead of implementing new rules for school sport.
The new rules ban zone, regional, and state competitions in a bid to stop people from different locations mixing together.
Organisations have been told to call off sporting activities involving overnight stays.
Awards ceremonies, end-of-season social gatherings, and post-training dinners are cancelled.
Guidelines for spectators have also been tightened.
Only one parent or guardian will be allowed on the sidelines “where the child requires parental supervision during the sporting activity,” Dr Chant’s letter states.
Previously, there was no stipulation limiting parental spectating to circumstances “where the child requires … supervision”.
New guidelines were enforced for school sport on Tuesday, limiting regional competitions.
The independent Sporting Association, a group of 20 independent schools across Greater Sydney, has cancelled all remaining winter sports.
GPS also announced it would cancel winter sports, affecting schools including Shore School, Sydney Grammar, Sydney Boys High, Riverview, The King’s School, Newington College along with The Armidale School.
BUS DRIVERS THREATEN TO STRIKE
Sydney bus drivers are threatening industrial action for two days next week unless the government makes masks mandatory for passengers on crowded services.
The Rail Tram and Bus Union has written to the NSW Government warning they will put a 48-hour stop on services from Monday unless the government enforces masks on buses.
The union says masks need to be worn when there are more passengers than green dots on buses and social distancing must be more strictly enforced.
Union secretary David Babineau says the body has “exhausted every last avenue” to consult with the government.
“Our requests are simple and will ensure our public transport remains safe and reliable during this challenging and rapidly evolving pandemic,” he said.
The strike is planned for Monday and will affect North West Sydney, North Shore, Northern Beaches and Eastern Suburbs services.
VIC RECORDS 17 MORE DEATHS
Victoria has recorded 222 new cases of coronavirus overnight and tragically, 17 more deaths.
The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the figure on Tuesday morning, 24 hours after the state recorded its deadliest day with 25 deaths.
Thirteen of the 17 new deaths were linked to aged care, while 45 people remain in intensive care.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said the “wretched virus” often caused people to “deteriorate” between a week and two weeks after they began showing symptoms, meaning worse numbers could be on the way.
“That is an indicator that your severe disease will peak around about one to two weeks after your numbers in the community will peak,” Dr Coatsworth said.
“That daily number (of deaths) could exceed 25.”
PPE SQUADS FOR NSW AGED CARE
NSW aged care homes will be the priority recipients of flying squads of PPE trainers to ensure the sector is equipped to handle any coronavirus outbreaks amid ongoing community transmission in the state.
Teams of specialists could be deployed across the country within weeks, offering new or reinforced training in appropriate use of personal protective equipment in-person in the wake of concerns the sector is not properly prepared.
Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed NSW was the state with the “next need” of support after Victoria, partly due to the COVID-19 risk and because the state was “ready” to receive the assistance.
The Daily Telegraph understands NSW is well-progressed in its plan to implement new strategies identified in recent weeks, including the standing up a state aged care co-ordination centre, once National Cabinet formally agrees to the measures this Friday.
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said it was important to make sure infection control training was “reinforced as much as possible” in aged care facilities where residents are at a high risk of dying from coronavirus.
“Personal protective equipment training, the ability to put it on or donning or taking it off, doffing correctly is an important part of wearing the PPE and stopping cross transmission,”: he said.
“I would say the best way to learn PPE is face-to-face with somebody teaching you.”
Dr Coatsworth said there were a “number of ways” training could be delivered including using “flying squad” AUSMAT teams or local hospital officials.
“There will be a variety of ways that can be done but that would be a desirable thing to happen,” he said.
QLD BORDER SLAMMED SHUT
Queensland’s borders could stay shut until next year, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declaring she won’t open her state while community COVID transmission in NSW and Victoria is occurring.
Eliminating community transmission is considered the goal of our state’s COVID-19 response, but Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant couldn’t answer how quickly that could happen.
Getting community spread of COVID-19 to zero would only be achieved with an “incredible” community and business response, Dr Chant said.
“I suppose if I’m an optimist, if everyone works together, I think it is achievable,” she said.
The benchmark comes after a newborn baby boy flown to Brisbane for urgent medical treatment was separated from his parents by Queensland’s border wall.
The couple from Casino, in the state’s north, were told they couldn’t travel into Queensland to see their newborn until they had completed 14 days hotel quarantine.
Nevertheless Premier Palaszczuk yesterday said restrictions in Victoria were set to last until “around Christmas time” and border restrictions won’t be lifted until Melbourne’s outbreak ends.
“We do not have any intentions of opening any borders while there is community transmission active in Victoria and in NSW,” she said.
The Queensland government’s dramatic border threat came as the Prime Minister made a personal plea to Premier Palaszczuk asking for “critical” border changes to stop supermarket supply chains being disrupted, farmers being hurt and preventing people getting health care.
In a letter sent to the QLD Premier, Scott Morrison said farming services and supply chains were at risk of being “unnecessarily or unintentionally” impeded by border restrictions.
Mr Morrison said it was “critical the movement of people, products and services impacting agricultural production be as streamlined” as possible.
The Prime Minister is also seeking more consistent border restrictions between states, though is understood to respect the sovereignty of states to set their own borders.
It is widely expected within government that the matter could be raised in National Cabinet, while similar letters have also been sent to the Premiers of NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
A Palaszczuk Government spokesman said they had received the letters and were considering them.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday called for Queensland to take a “sensible” approach to its borders.
YEAR 12 FORMALS ON HOLD
A ban on school formals because of the pandemic has dealt a body blow to small businesses gearing up for their busiest time of year.
Owner of Sydney hire car service Illusion Limousines, Frank Scicluna, would usually be hoping for six weeks of much-needed revenue from the Year 12 rite-of-passage farewells.
Instead, he’s readying for another cash flow hit.
“I’m really concerned. We’ve already lost Year 10 formals and normally between July and August we have two to three formals a week. Now, there’s no work,” he said.
Formals along with school graduations and other social events may have been cancelled by the government but but Mr Scicluna still has bills to pay.
“Everyone in the industry is suffering badly. We’ve still got insurance, rego and maintenance bills to pay. Regardless of whether people are going out or not.”
Roxy Lehmann, founder of formal dress hire company Dress for a Night has found herself in a similar situation.
Business was just starting to pick up when the ban was announced. “Already, at the beginning of COVID in the last financial quarter we saw an 80 per cent decrease in revenue, so we were really looking forward to formal time,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
Earlier in the year, Ms Lehmann tried to apply for small business assistance, but was told her industry was not eligible. “We were told we weren’t an affected industry,” she said. “The government needs to consider which industries are hardest hit.”
CITY’S A HOT MESS
A shock decision to declare Sydney’s CBD a coronavirus hotspot has business owners concerned nervous customers will abandon the city and hamper economic recovery.
Business owners were left scrambling to implement their COVID-19 safe plans in line with the hotspot declaration after NSW Health added the City of Sydney council area to its list on Saturday.
As a result more than 100,000ha of the city are now subjected to “increased testing and surveillance”.
Sydney Business Chamber executive director Katherine O’Regan said she expected a significant drop in foot traffic in the CBD.
“People had started to return but in the last few days already it has tapered off again,” she said.
NSW recorded seven new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, six of which were locally acquired. Three were linked to the Chopstix restaurant at Smithfield RSL, and two were linked to Parramatta’s Our Lady of Mercy College cluster.