How Holiday Inn hotel quarantine cluster spread across Melbourne

Just five days was all it took to send Victoria back into lockdown. Here’s how the 17 infections spread across Melbourne.

Health authorities have revealed just how quickly Victoria’s latest outbreak spread across Melbourne and sent the state into a third lockdown only five days later.

Victoria’s coronavirus response commander Jeroen Weimar said on Monday the first case of community transmission was identified on the night of Sunday, February 7.

Just five days later, on Friday February 12, the spread of the cluster had caused enough concern among Victoria’s health officials that they advised Premier Daniel Andrews to plunge more than six million people back into stage 4 lockdown.

Mr Weimar said the outbreak started with a family of three returned travellers who were quarantining on the third floor in the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn.

He said it was believed they arrived with coronavirus.

The working theory is the man, who was positive for coronavirus and also suffered from a lung condition, used a nebuliser on February 5 and 6 that caused a fine mist of aerosols to be suspended into the air.

Hotel quarantine residents being evacuated from the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ David Crosling

An authorised officer working in the Holiday Inn contracted the virus while in the corridor on the same floor as the family of three.

Mr Weimar said the authorised officer was case four and was detected through routine testing within the hotel quarantine program that had so far conducted more than 118,000 tests since early December.

The authorised officer had eight household and social contacts, of which one tested positive a few days later and became case number 13 of the outbreak.

Victoria’s COVID response commander Jeroen Weimar has revealed how the infection spread across Melbourne. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui

“They were already isolating from that Sunday night and as such we have no further exposure and no further exposure sites,” Mr Weimar said.

He said case number five was another resident on the third floor of the Holiday Inn who tested positive on February 8 after they had left hotel quarantine.

They were already isolating after leaving hotel quarantine and had no further exposure to anyone else.

Case number six was a food and beverage worker from the Holiday Inn.

Mr Weimar said she had 13 household and social contacts, with 12 testing negative and one returning a positive result to become case number 10.

All cases in the outbreak have been linked back to the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ David Crosling

“They had also been quarantining safely since the February 9 with case number six, and the only other people they have come into contact with have also tested negative,” he said.

Case number eight identified on February 9 was another resident of the Holiday Inn who had been isolating along with three primary close contacts who had so far tested negative.

Case 11 was also a hotel quarantine worker at the Holiday Inn and was diagnosed on February 11.

Mr Weimar said case seven was another food and beverage worker from the Holiday Inn who initially returned a negative result on her last shift on February 7.

The Brunetti cafe worker was a household contact of cases seven and nine. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

Mr Weimar she was retested on February 9 and returned a positive result on February 10.

Her partner became case number nine when he tested positive and had several close contacts through his work, including Coates Hire Werribee and the RAAF Base Point Cook.

“They have all returned negative test results, they have all been closed down,” Mr Weimar said.

Case number 12 was also a household contact of case number seven, the food and beverage worker at the Holiday Inn.

Mr Weimar said she was the Brunetti’s cafe worker at Melbourne Airport terminal four.

All 12 Brunetti’s staff members have tested negative, as have 33 out of 34 customers, with the final customer tested on Sunday.

Another 1600 people who passed through terminal four have also been contacted and told to isolate and get tested.

Terminal four at Melbourne Airport was added as a public exposure site. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“Our three cases – seven, nine and 12 – are three individuals who share the same house,” Mr Weimar said.

“They also attended a function on 426 Sydney Road, Coburg on Saturday February 6,” he said.

“A total of 38 people were at that function – 31 have tested negative and a total of seven people have returned a positive test, including our three people from the household.”

Case 14 was the first case identified with a connection to a party late last Friday night. All seven close contacts have tested negative.

Case 15 was a three-year-old child who was at the party.

“This is an active line of inquiry, one of our priority cases, to follow up at the moment,” Mr Weimar said.

“They attended Glenroy Central Kinder and the Goodstart Early Learning Centre in Glenroy over three days last week.”

Case 16 visited Queen Victoria Market, which was deep cleaned on Monday morning. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

He said 101 primary close contacts were across the two kindergartens.

Case number 16 was also at the function in Coburg and is connected to several public exposure sites revealed on Sunday, including the Queen Victoria Market and several tram routes.

Case 17 was confirmed late on Sunday night and had worked in three psychiatric units at The Alfred hospital, the Northern Hospital and Broadmeadows Hospital.

Mr Weimar said the outbreak now spanned almost 1400 close contacts.

“All of these cases continue to isolate safely, they are all in their 14 days isolation, and all of their household and social contacts are continuing to isolate even when they return negative results,” he said.

Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said all cases had so far been linked.

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