Coronavirus: Melbourne hotel cluster focus falls on vapour machine

Victoria’s hotel quarantine cluster grows to eight, as authorities investigate medical equipment in the transmission.

A quarantining hotel guest at the Holiday Inn near the airport is moved to a new location in Melbourne on Wednesday. Picture: AAP

Victoria’s hotel quarantine cluster has grown to eight cases, as authorities investigate the likely role of a piece of medical equipment in the transmission of the virus.

The discovery on Wednesday of two new cases in a worker and a former resident at Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn quarantine hotel came as South Australia closed its borders to Melbourne and Premier Daniel Andrews put plans to increase his state’s overseas arrivals cap from Monday on hold.

The new cases followed positive tests one day earlier from a hotel food and beverage attendant and another former resident, and after news broke at the weekend that an authorised officer at the hotel had the virus.

The Holiday Inn was closed overnight on Tuesday for a “terminal clean” and residents were evacuated to Melbourne’s inner-city Pullman Hotel.

All five Holiday Inn transmissions are believed to be linked to a family of three, which Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said had likely contracted the virus overseas.

There have now been seven transmissions of the highly contagious British strain of the virus across three Victorian quarantine hotels in a week, including in a resident at the Park Royal hotel who caught the virus from a family across the corridor, and in a floor monitor at the Grand Hyatt Australian Open quarantine hotel.

Professor Sutton said authorities believed the virus was spread by the use of a nebuliser used by a member of that family — who is now in intensive care — to vaporise and inhale medication.

 

“(The nebuliser) really vaporises medication or liquid into a very fine mist, and if that’s breathed in … and someone is infectious or later tests positive, then that picks up the virus and that mist can then be suspended in the air with very, very fine aerosolised particles,” he said on Wednesday morning, when only two cases in workers and one case in a departed resident had come to light.

“We think the exposures are all to that event, the use of a nebuliser, which then meant the virus was carried out into the corridor.

“What we know is that the authorised officer, the food and beverage worker, had been on the floor for a period of time on those relevant days.”

Thousands of people who have either worked or quarantined at the Holiday Inn since January 27 have been ordered to isolate, as have close contacts of the workers and former residents who have visited venues across the city.

The new infections came a day after Mr Andrews said his state would take fewer returning travellers because the quarantine system had “higher standards” than those in Sydney.

On Wednesday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she would not “lower herself” to responding, but Mr Andrews was “pretty good at spin”.

“I think success is measured by how many people you’re able to bring in and how you can keep the community safe,” she said.

Victorian authorities have confirmed the food and beverage attendant who tested positive on Tuesday last attended work last Thursday, and had visited a range of venues in the following days including a bottle shop on Sunday evening — despite having experienced symptoms on Saturday.

The Holiday Inn near Melbourne airport. Picture: AAP

The woman was ordered to isolate and get tested as a close contact on Monday after news broke late on Sunday that her colleague had tested positive, but it was not until Tuesday morning that she attended a testing site. “We’ll need to follow that through. They may have good reason for that,” Mr Andrews said when asked why the woman had delayed being tested.

In light of the new cases, Mr Andrews announced on Wednesday morning that Victoria had abandoned plans to increase its overseas arrivals cap from 1120 people to 1310 on Monday. The state had agreed to the increase at Friday’s national cabinet meeting, alongside NSW and Queensland each committing to double their caps to 3010 and 1000 respectively.

South Australia’s cap will rise from 490 to 530, while Western Australia’s will remain at 512.

“We’re not taking any risks that would see us have to get to a situation where we ask Victorians to deal with other restrictions,” Mr Andrews said.

Meanwhile, in Adelaide South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens announced anyone arriving in the state from Greater Melbourne after midnight on Wednesday would likely be locked out and required to quarantine for 14 days. “Our steps in SA are taken with an abundance of caution to make sure we are minimising the risk, but at the same time not taking steps that aren’t deemed to be necessary,” Mr Stevens said.

Travellers to SA from regional Victoria will not be affected by the new restrictions.