Returned travellers in Australia to face mandatory COVID-19 testing
Returning travellers will face an extended quarantine if they won’t take a COVID-19 test in NSW, after it was revealed a shocking number in Victoria were refusing tests. It comes as six new cases were recorded in NSW, including one in Sydney’s west.
NSW
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International travellers returning to NSW will face an additional ten days in quarantine if they refuse to be tested for COVID-19.
NSW Health has confirmed that returned travellers who refuse to be tested on the tenth day of hotel quarantine in NSW would be made to extend their stay by an extra 10 days.
It comes after it was revealed almost a third of returned travellers in Victoria were refusing COVID-19 tests during their 14-day quarantine, despite surging case numbers in the state.
Another 41 cases were recorded in Victoria in the past 24 hours, and the government is now seeking legal advice to force returned travellers in hotel quarantine to be tested for the virus.
Outgoing chief medical officer Brendan Murphy suggested on Friday that overseas travellers could be confined to quarantine until they can produce a negative coronavirus test.
Mr Murphy said on Friday that states and territories had the power to hold a traveller in quarantine until they were able to produce a negative test.
“That 30 per cent is quite a high rate,” he said. “You have powers to say to someone, “Well, we won‘t let you out of quarantine until you‘ve been tested and had a clear test.
“We will, as you say, make sure people understand before they come that this is a requirement. I think most people will co-operate with that arrangement.”
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He also announced Australia would begin testing all returned travellers when they first arrived in quarantine and at the end of their hotel stay.
More cases of coronavirus are expected, with hundreds of Australians set to return from overseas in coming days to begin mandatory 14-day quarantine.
NSW already requests all returned travellers undertake a COVID-19 test on day 10 of their quarantine, and less than two per cent test refuse.
Since May 15, when the day 10 testing rule began, 59 of those 11,634 travellers have been found positive. That’s in addition to the 3314 returned travellers who have shown symptoms of COVID-19 and been tested in NSW quarantine hotels, before or after day 10.
Since 29 March, 105 of those symptomatic returned travellers have been found positive.
NEW COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION CASE IN NSW
NSW recorded six new COVID-19 cases on Saturday including as a man in his 70s from Sydney’s west.
All close contacts of the man, from the Penrith area, have been contacted and the case is under investigation, NSW Health said on Saturday. The remaining five new cases are returned travellers in hotel quarantine, the department said in a statement.
The six cases reported on Saturday bring the state’s total number of coronavirus cases to 3174.
A total of 58 cases are being treated by NSW Health, with none in intensive care.
It follows the closure of a school in southwest Sydney after a year 7 student tested positive for COVID-19.
A testing clinic has been set up at Camden Hospital anyone linked to Camden High School who has been unwell or has flu-like symptoms has been urged to get tested.
“The school will continue to support students with at-home learning arrangements while the school site is non-operational,” the NSW Department of Education said in a statement on Friday.
The infected student is believed to have attended school all week. The case was one of six reported across NSW on Friday.
Camden High’s closure comes after Lane Cove West Public School was closed for deep cleaning on Thursday following news a seven-year-old had developed symptoms on Saturday. However, the child reportedly had not attended school during the week.
- with AAP
Originally published as Returned travellers in Australia to face mandatory COVID-19 testing