Northern Territory coronavirus patient links to northern beaches
A coronavirus patient who was diagnosed in Darwin after flying in from Sydney, is believed to have links to the northern beaches.
Manly
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A man who was diagnosed with the coronavirus in the Northern Territory this week is believed to have attended a meeting on Sydney’s northern beaches last Friday.
The 52-year-old who flew to Darwin from Sydney was tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
He is currently in isolation at Royal Darwin Hospital where he is receiving treatment.
“The man only recently arrived in Darwin via Sydney and has had limited contact with the local community,” NT Health said in a statement yesterday, where they described him as a tourist.
It follows the news that a woman in her 30s is currently in isolation at Northern Beaches Hospital after also being diagnosed with the disease.
NSW Health could not comment on the Darwin case, even though the patient flew there from Sydney.
However, WIRES, a wildlife rescue organisation which has a call centre in Brookvale, Old Pittwater Rd, confirmed a man who was later diagnosed in the NT with coronavirus attended a 15-minute meeting in the admin office on Friday.
A spokesman for WIRES John Grant said the man’s partner who also works for the organisation was one of the four other people in the meeting. She and three others are self-isolating following the man’s diagnosis.
“We have taken all the precautions and we have done everything and more that we are required to do,” Mr Grant said.
“We are pretty confident that nothing is going to eventuate from this.”
Mr Grant said that the man’s partner was well and was showing no symptoms and the man himself had not been suffering from any symptoms on Friday when the meeting was held.
He would not confirm whether the man and his partner lived on the northern beaches.
In a leaked email to employees that was sent to the Manly Daily it said the man who had been diagnosed was in the “admin office for a very short period” and that neither the man or his partner had visited the main office.
“There is no need to be worried about this,” the email stated.
“Precautions have been taken, anyone who was in contact with him is working from home.”
It also encouraged employees to be “diligent with the cleaning and use of shared items” in the offices and to use hand sanitiser that is available on desks and wipe down the keyboards with the antibacterial wipes when using them.
A spokesman for NSW Health said it releases information about locations where a patient has travelled once they are confirmed to have the coronavirus only if those locations pose any risk as is required for notifiable diseases, such as COVID-19.
“In addition, NSW Health takes proactive steps to contact all close contacts of the patient, including family members and co-workers, to give them advice on isolation, symptoms to be aware of and their level of risk,” a spokesman said.