Hotel quarantine breach behind Delta outbreak, lockdown set to end on time
Melbourne is set to lift its lockdown restrictions on time, while authorities desperately probe how the highly infectious Delta variant likely leaked from hotel quarantine.
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This article was published on Tuesday, June 8. For the latest news on Covid cases in Victoria and Melbourne’s lockdown, click here to follow Wednesday’s rolling coverage.
Another hotel quarantine breach is to blame for the escape of the highly infectious Delta variant into the Victorian community.
Authorities on Tuesday announced that a genomic link had been identified between a returned traveller and the family at the centre of the Delta variant.
The exact cause of transmission is not yet known, acting Premier James Merlino said.
“I can confirm today that we have now found a match between a returned traveller who entered hotel quarantine in Melbourne on May 8 and this cluster. While we have a genomic link, we do not currently have an epidemiological link,” Mr Merlino said.
The minister responsible for hotel quarantine, Danny Pearson, said authorities were notified of the genomic link on Monday night.
The traveller, a man aged in his 40s, arrived from Sri Lanka on May 8 and tested positive that same day, before being transferred from the Novotel Ibis quarantine hotel to the Holiday Inn health hotel May 14.
He completed his quarantine and was released on May 23. Health authorities say he was “highly likely” not infectious at the time and do not know yet if he worked in a high risk setting.
Mr Pearson said there were no obvious breaches that would indicate transmission had occurred in the hotel.
“Our investigations remain ongoing,” Mr Pearson said.
The man, who lives in the City of Glen Eira, was not thought to be infectious when he left quarantine, and his contacts after his discharge are now being followed up.
Deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng said the finding was “significant”, and four possible theories were being investigated as to how the virus was spread:
• The case transmitted the virus to, or was infected by, someone on the plane;
• The case transmitted the virus after quarantine while in the community;
• The case transmitted to a staff member in hotel quarantine; or
• The case transmitted to a hotel resident.
All those theories are under investigation, with Prof Cheng saying it was least likely that someone was infected on the aircraft.
He also said the finding may suggest the second positive family may have actually infected the family who travelled to Jervis Bay, and expressed that he was “very surprised” that the Delta variant of virus had leaked into the community.
Despite the shock discovery, Mr Merlino has stood by the hotel quarantine program.
“We are making it as risk-free as humanly possible … but it has never ever been a zero-risk environment,” he said.
But the recent find reignited Mr Merlino’s calls for a purpose-built quarantine facility to be built in Victoria as soon as possible.
“Hotels are built for tourists, they’re not built to tackle infectious disease,” he said.
There were 24 people, including crew, on the flight. All tested negative.
All SkyBus employees from the shift tested negative.
LOCKDOWN ‘ON TRACK’ TO END ON TIME
Melbourne is set to lift its lockdown on Friday, with just two new local cases recorded on Tuesday.
Both cases — a child linked to the West Melbourne outbreak and an Arcare worker’s household contact — are linked to existing outbreaks and there is also one new case in hotel quarantine.
And the city is “on track” to lift its lockdown restrictions after a two-week shutdown, Mr Merlino said.
“Our contact tracing team has done exactly what we needed them to do. They have found the cases, they have tracked them down and they have isolated them.
“Thanks to their outstanding work, we remain on track to later in this week announce … further easings of restriction in regional Victoria and careful easing of restrictions in Melbourne.”
“We will have different settings between regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne,” he said.
“That will extend beyond any announcements that we will make later in the week. There is very good reasons for that. We absolutely want to run this into ground and ensure that there’s no risk of this spreading out into regional Victoria.”
Restrictions similar to those that regional Victoria moved to last Friday are expected to instead come into force in the city.
These are likely to include mask wearing indoors, bans or caps on home gatherings and public get-togethers, and caps and density limits on offices, venues, bars and restaurants.
But schools are expected to return to face-to-face learning and children’s sport to resume.
“We are certainly on course to lift the lockdown as scheduled,” one senior source said.
“Unless there is a massive shock, we would be expecting that to happen.”
Sources said that even if there was a “lesser setback”, many in cabinet would strongly resist an extension of the lockdown, originally imposed as a seven-day circuit-breaker.
The Herald Sun understands key industries were on Monday afternoon briefed on the planned easing of restrictions.
Covid-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar and senior government ministers held the briefing, which also underlined the success of the state’s contact tracing regimen to bolster confidence for when business reopens.
A couple of days of double-digit increases in new cases – such as Monday – would not necessarily halt the planned easing of Melbourne’s lockdown as evidence mounts that outstanding outbreaks are being contained.
Despite initial alarm that Victoria had recorded a surge of 11 Covid-19 cases overnight on Sunday, confirmation that all were connected to existing clusters – including eight cases among quarantining close contacts – kept the state on track to ease restrictions after Thursday.
As thousands of Victorians identified as primary close contacts in the early days of the Whittlesea outbreak reach the end of their quarantine, each will have to undergo a 13-day Covid test, raising the likelihood that asymptomatic but contained cases will be detected.
PM CALLS FOR LOCKDOWN TO BE LIFTED ‘QUICKLY’
Scott Morrison has turned the screws on the Victorian government over Melbourne’s ongoing lockdown, urging it to lift restrictions as soon as safely possible.
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino on Tuesday said the state was “on track” to ease restrictions by the end of the week, but warned settings for Melbourne and regional Victoria would be different for “a period of time”.
But on Tuesday, Mr Morrison said the federal government wanted to see restrictions eased quickly.
Read the full story here
REASON POSITIVE CASE BREACHED ISOLATION
A Victorian who tested positive for coronavirus breached an urgent isolation order so they could get the Covid-19 jab, health authorities have revealed.
The case – who visited the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (Jeff’s Shed) in South Wharf – was one of two new local infections recorded on Tuesday.
Covid-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar said the case briefly visited the vaccination hub on Monday afternoon after receiving their positive result.
It caused the location to be listed as a tier 3 coronavirus exposure site.
Anyone who visited the vaccine hub on Monday afternoon between 3.15pm and 4pm must monitor for symptoms of Covid-19.
The visit also triggered two individuals who dealt with the case to go into mandatory quarantine.
“They completed their test and they went off and tried to get a vaccination,” Mr Weimar told reporters on Monday morning.
“They were directed to leave and go back to isolation immediately.
“For anybody who is a primary close contact or anybody who is a positive case, you must get tested, isolate and you cannot go to a vaccination centre.
Mr Weimar said he was confident there was “no wider risk to the public”, but listed the vaccine hub as tier 3 site “out of caution”.
VIC GOVT DENIES HOARDING VACCINES
The Victorian government has sought to clear up days of mixed messaging about its vaccine strategy, with its Covid-19 tsar declaring the state wouldn’t be saving up doses for second vaccinations.
The Herald Sun revealed on Monday the federal government had grown frustrated with Victoria’s insistence on storing supplies for second doses, even as it complained of supply shortages while Victorians faced long waits to get the vaccine.
But federal chief medical officer Paul Kelly confirmed on Monday the issue of Victoria storing second doses had been raised in various forums, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison encouraged states to use up their supplies at last Friday’s national cabinet meeting.
National vaccine operations centre co-ordinator Commodore Eric Young said: “There’s no need for them to hold back second doses as they will be provided by us.”
Victorian Covid-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar denied the state was putting doses in reserve for second shots.
“We will vaccinate with as much of the vaccine as we can possibly get hold of,” he said.
“All the vaccine we get flows through into our clinics in about a week’s time and then flows into people’s arms.”
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