COVID-19 cases in WA confirmed as acquired inside hotel quarantine

Authorities are investigating how guests who arrived from different countries at different times caught COVID-19 inside hotel quarantine.

West Australian health authorities are scrambling to track the possible spread of COVID-19 at a quarantine hotel in Perth, after two new cases thought to be overseas acquired were confirmed as being contracted inside the hotel.

It comes on the same day NSW health authorities are racing against the clock to trace the possible transmission of the South African strain of COVID-19 after three returned travellers who stayed at a Sydney hotel became infected.

WA Health said on Wednesday night genome sequencing had confirmed two sets of guests, who had rooms opposite each other at Perth’s Mercure Hotel, had the same sequence of virus — even though they arrived in the city from different countries and at different times.

The two infections had been previously reported as being acquired from overseas, but are now listed as hotel quarantine-acquired.

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Released hotel quarantine guests who had stayed on the same floor as the two cases have been told they have to isolate again as WA’s acting chief health officer begins an immediate investigation into how the infections happened.

“All other guests who previously stayed on the same (sixth) floor during this time and have been released from the hotel facility tested negative prior to release,” WA Health said in a statement.

“These guests will be retested and directed to self-isolate until cleared by the public health team.

“Guests who were previously in the rooms immediately adjacent will be self-quarantined for 14 days since their last potential exposure and tested.”

A spokeswoman told NCA NewsWire: “We’re just using an abundance of caution”.

WA Health is investigating the how COVID-19 appeared to jump between quarantining guests' rooms at the Mercure Hotel in Perth.

WA Health confirmed there have been no positive cases among hotel staff, who are tested daily.

“While similar transmission in hotels in other jurisdictions has not resulted in community transmission, the community must always remain vigilant,” the department added.

“The threat of COVID-19 remains real.”

The development comes as NSW authorities trace the possible transmission of the South African strain at the Mercure Hotel in Sydney, after three returned travellers became infected.

The three travellers returned to Australia on the same flight on April 3 and stayed in adjacent rooms at the Mercure on George St in the Sydney CBD.

Genomic testing has confirmed all three share the same sequence for the B1.351 variant, also known as the South African strain.

“All three people, two of whom are members of the same family, tested negative on their day-two swabs in hotel quarantine, before subsequently testing positive for COVID-19 later during their quarantine periods,” NSW Health said in a statement earlier on Wednesday.

“The two family members stayed in connecting rooms on the 10th floor of the hotel, while the third person was in an adjacent room.

“The family members tested positive on days seven and 10 of their stay, while the person in an adjacent room tested positive on day 12.”

The three travellers will stay in special health accommodation until they are no longer infectious.

NSW authorities are now contacting people who stayed on the same floor as the infected guests between April 7 and 12. They will need to be rested and self-isolate for 14 days from the day they left quarantine.

Hotel staff who worked on that floor are also being rested and are self-isolating.

WA’s only case of community transmission in almost 10 months was in January at the Four Seasons Hotel in the CBD and was caught by a hotel quarantine worker - a security guard - plunging Perth, Peel and the South West regions into a snap five-day lockdown.

— With NCA NewsWire