Source of Sydney COVID-19 infection revealed as virus spreads to man’s wife

NSW health officials have revealed how a Sydney man was infected with COVID as his wife tests positive to the illness as well.

NSW Health officials have said they know who carried the coronavirus that infected a Sydney man but worry there is a “missing link” who is also positive.

The news came after the wife of the eastern suburbs man in his 50s, who found out he was infected on Wednesday, tested positive to the virus as well.

The couple were the first two confirmed local cases of coronavirus in NSW in over a month.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said “health detectives” had managed to trace the source of the man’s infection.

Genome analysis revealed the likely source of the man’s infection was a person who arrived from the US and attended special health accommodation after testing positive upon arrival in Australia.

NSW Health officials have said they know how a Sydney man became infected with coronavirus but worry there is a “missing link” who is also positive. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

But it’s still not clear how the virus managed to spread from that person to the eastern suburbs man who was confirmed positive on Wednesday.

“We can’t find any direct link between our (cases),” NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said.

“So what we’re concerned about is that there is another person that is yet to be identified that infected our case.”

Dr Chant said the health department believed the virus strain originated in India.

However, it was not currently considered a “variant of concern”, the term the department uses for certain highly transmissible versions of the coronavirus such as those that originated in the UK and South Africa.

The man visited a number of venues in Sydney before he realised he was infected, including a CBD restaurant where NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet was having coffee at the same time.

Mr Perrottet has tested negative for the virus but will remain in self-isolation for 14 days starting last Friday.

The fears of continued community spread prompted Ms Berejiklian to announce a raft of new restrictions for greater Sydney.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said officials are searching for a missing link. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Residents will be required to adhere to the following public health guidelines from 5pm on Thursday until midnight on Monday:

• No more than 20 people allowed inside a home.
• No singing or dancing in indoor venues, including places of worship and entertainment venues – the exception is weddings.
• Masks will be compulsory at all indoor venues.
• Only two visitors allowed per resident in aged care facilities.
• Drinking while standing up at indoor venues will not be allowed
  

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the measures would only apply to people in the greater Sydney area – from the Central Coast, through to Sydney and down to the Illawarra.

“We believe this is a proportionate response to the risk ahead of us,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Virus fragments were discovered in a sewage network that services suburbs in Sydney’s inner west, NSW Health announced on Wednesday night.

The Marrickville Sewage Network handles waste from the suburbs of Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Summer Hill, Lewisham, Ashfield, Haberfield, Petersham, Lilyfield and Leichhardt, home to some 42,000 people.

“NSW Health is asking everyone in these areas to be especially vigilant in monitoring for symptoms, and if they appear to get tested and isolate immediately until a negative result is received,” the department said.

It wasn’t clear whether there was any link to the infected couple and the fragments detected in the sewage.

There were 11,579 COVID-19 tests reported in NSW in the 24 hour period until 8pm on Wednesday night, about 2,000 fewer than the previous day.

Over 4400 vaccines were administered in the latest 24-hour reporting period, and the total figure for the state is 717,752.

There were nine new cases in hotel quarantine.