Experts say it is unlikely air conditioning spread coronavirus at Brisbane’s Hotel Grand Chancellor
Experts say it is unlikely air con was the reason for a new cluster in a Brisbane hotel, after the possibility was raised by Queensland’s Premier.
Air conditioning is unlikely to be the cause of a cluster of the highly contagious UK variant of COVID-19 at a hotel used to quarantine travellers, infectious disease experts say.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Wednesday posed the question that air conditioning ventilation may have spread the virus at Hotel Grand Chancellor in inner Brisbane.
The hotel has been used to quarantine travellers since September.
Five people, including a cleaner, have contracted the UK variant of the virus at the hotel. All of them were on the seventh floor.
A sixth person, the cleaner’s partner, also tested positive to the UK variant while all 129 international travellers who were in quarantine at the hotel have been moved to other accommodation.
Griffith University Infectious Diseases & Immunology director Nigel McMillan said air conditioning ventilation causing the spread was not unrealistic but highly unlikely.
Professor McMillan said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had released findings into the potential spread of the virus through air-conditioning ventilation in mid-2020.
“The WHO, in June, put out a statement on air conditioning,” he said.
“They looked at the studies and came to the conclusion that air-conditioning systems, that are well designed and maintained, were not a contributing factor to spreading the disease.
“There’s a possibility the Chancellor’s air conditioning is not well maintained or well designed or there’s some other explanation.
“On the balance of probabilities the air-conditioning system is probably not the likely cause.”
Australian National University infectious diseases physician and microbiologist Peter Collignon said four of the six cases, a man who travelled back from Ghana and his partner as well as the hotel cleaner and her partner, can be linked.
“It’s not surprising that four of the cases are identical,” the professor said.
“The husband and wife you would expect to have identical strains and the cleaner got it from the other couple, then you would expect those strains to be the same.
“There’s a ready explanation why four people may have the same strain and even the Lebanese couple … again this is the common UK variant, Britain has exported to lots of countries.”
Mr Collignon said if the air-conditioning was the primary cause then “you would expect many more people to have it” and the fact they are all on the same floor could be coincidental.
Ms Palaszczuk said removing all quarantined travellers to other hotels was a precautionary measure while they investigated the reasons behind the cluster.
“So the first good step is that the number of arrivals have been decreased, but also to its
highly contagious, the fact that all of these six people were on the 7th floor,” she said.
“How did it get transmitted? Was it in the air conditioning? Was it movement? Was it picking up something? We just don't know those answers yet.”
Anyone who has visited, worked or stayed at Hotel Grand Chancellor since December 30 must immediately get tested for coronavirus, said the state’s chief health officer.
There have been 250 guests and 226 workers at the hotel since December 30 while all 129 guests, relocated to other hotels, will have to serve a further 14 days in quarantine.
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