Coronavirus: Bondi-based aircrew driver’s positive case ‘a serious breach’

NSW’s 43 day streak of zero locally acquired cases has come to an end, after a man tested positive for Covid-19 near Bondi Junction.

The man, who is in his 60s and resides in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, attended Bondi Junctions’s Westfield shopping centre, as well as cafes and restaurants in the Vaucluse area. Picture: AFP

Health authorities in NSW are on high alert as the state’s 43-day streak of zero locally acquired infections came to an end on Wednesday afternoon, with a man testing positive for Covid-19 near Bondi Junction.

The source of the infection has not been determined but the man has worked as a driver for inter­national aircrew, prom­pting new calls from epidemio­logists for stricter quarantine controls.

The man had a saliva test on Tuesday and the positive result was confirmed by a second PCR test on Wednesday. Contact tracers are now scrambling to identify his movements.

“Urgent investigations into the source of the infection and contact tracing are under way, as is ­genome sequencing,” a NSW Health spokesperson said.

“Close contacts are being urgently contacted and asked to get tested and isolate.”

The man, who is in his 60s and lives in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, attended Bondi Junction’s Westfield shopping centre, where he visited Myer and David Jones, as well as Sourdough Bakery on Friday June 11 and Saturday June 12. He also visited Belle Cafe, Wash­oku and Rocco’s in the nearby Vaucluse area.

Officials are also urging anyone who watched the 1.45pm screening of the popular movie Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard at Bondi’s Events Cinema on June 13 to get tested and isolate for 14 days.

Authorities described the cinema as a “close-contact venue” and stressed that anyone who attended the screening should call NSW Health immediately.

NSW Health said the man had not travelled overseas recently, but added he worked as a “driver which includes transporting international crews”.

In December, another driver who transported international flight crews caught the virus.

University of NSW epidemiologist Mary Louise McLaws was highly critical of infection control procedures following the latest infection, suggesting the new Bondi infection should be regarded as akin to a breach in hotel quarantine because the man potentially came into contact with inter­national crews and passengers.

“This man should have been constantly tested with a rapid Antigen test at the airport because he was driving and transporting crews,” she said. “I find it perplexing that this hasn’t been happening to people who are transporting others in vehicles from airports.

“I think we should consider this infection as a serious breach … ­because he likely contracted the virus from someone who was infectious on the plane, and this is something that would not be happening if we had a proper system of rapid testing.”

Professor McLaws said if the virus was confirmed to be the Alpha variant, “you should expect to see more locally acquired cases because of its infectiousness”.

The new case follows an alert from NSW Health on Tuesday night, sparking fears of a hotel quarantine breach in Sydney after it was found the Alpha strain of the virus had jumped between rooms at the Radisson Blu in Sydney’s CBD, infecting three returned travellers. All three cases arrived in Sydney on the same flight from Doha on June 1 and had stayed in adjacent rooms.

“We still don’t know if it happened on the plane, transporting from the plane to the accommodation, at the accommodation, or whether it was just a coincidence,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.