Pullman Hotel floors might be reopened to handle growing cases of COVID in SA quarantine

There’s just 12 rooms left in SA’s dedicated COVID-19 facility, as authorities investigate relaunching floors at the Pullman Hotel to handle the growing number of cases.

At least two major flights have been diverted from South Australia as authorities investigate relaunching floors within the Pullman Hotel for COVID patients.

Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier revealed another patient had been transferred to the Royal Adelaide Hospital overnight.

There are now two patients in its COVID-19 ward.

Prof Spurrier is due to sit on the country’s top medical emergency panel today, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, for an update on Western Australia.

SA’s borders still remain clamped down despite the Perth and Peel regions lockdown lifting.

Prof Spurrier said nursing staff at the Tom’s Court facility were preparing for possible more cases from a Malaysian Airlines flight that landed on Friday.

Rooms were rearranged and some patients moved.

There are currently 12 empty rooms, which is “quite a reasonable amount of capacity at the moment”, she said.

She revealed that flights due to arrive in Adelaide today and again on Thursday have been diverted interstate.

“If you keep getting 14 cases a day you’re not going to be able to manage,” she told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

“But also we have been given a little bit of a reprieve with flights and so we’ve got a couple of flights that had been booked in that we’re now not receiving,

“It just gives us a little bit of a chance to have some of the people in Tom’s Court be discharged and it just takes that little bit of pressure off us for that period of time.”

Premier Steven Marshall revealed on Monday that two floors on the Pullman hotel could be again used if Tom’s Court became full.

“So as you would be aware, in the lead up to having Tom’s Court hotel in place, we had two dedicated floors of the Pullman hotel now that is always a contingency for us,” he said.

“But we know that the Toms Court Hotel has almost been designed specifically as a COVID-19 Positive hotel.

“The ventilation has been looked at the CCTV has been looked at and modified very, very significantly as well as much more highly trained staff.

“So we’ve looked at and learnt from what happened with the Parafield cluster, we’ve taken action and I’m very satisfied with where we’re at the moment.”

Interstate travellers line up to get tested for COVID outside of Adelaide Airport. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Record numbers of active COVID cases so far this year are now in Adelaide’s medi-hotels with 14 new cases confirmed on Monday, all travellers returning from overseas.

It is the highest single-day figure of new cases since November 16 last year at the height of the Parafield cluster, which escaped a CBD medi-hotel.

Aside from that day, it is the highest number for more than a year. Eighteen cases were recorded on April 2, 2020.

The new cases include two boys and two girls, a man and women in their 20s, four women in their 30s and a man in his 40s.

Three other cases are considered “historic infections” but are still added to the SA tally, which now stands at 719.

There are now 32 active COVID cases in SA, the highest number so far this year and all from travellers arriving from overseas.

One of the cases is in hospital while the rest are in medi-hotels.

The active cases include the nine cases recorded on April 22, all from travellers arriving from overseas.

Sunday saw 3374 COVID tests taken bringing the total to 1,253,595, while state and federal vaccinations reached 144,539 doses administered.

Federal figures show SA has more than 57,000 doses stockpiled and an “estimated dose utilisation” rate of 58 per cent, the lowest in the nation.

SA Health notes that anyone who has travelled to South Australia from Perth or the Peel region since April 17 must get tested for COVID-19 as soon as possible and isolate until they receive a negative result.

“You must also get tested on day 5 and day 13,” the alert notes. “Anyone who has been in Perth or Peel region are currently not permitted to enter South Australia from 12:01am Saturday 24 April. Essential travellers are permitted, but must isolate for 14 days.”

Western Australia’s three-day lockdown will end as planned on Monday at midnight.

Originally published as Pullman Hotel floors might be reopened to handle growing cases of COVID in SA quarantine