Coronavirus: NSW on high alert as swabs go missing amid pub hotspot fears

SW was under high alert on ­Friday after 77 swabs from COVID-19 tests conducted in Sydney’s inner-west went missing.

‘We want you to get tested, and it is crucial you do, because otherwise you will be the instrument of seeding, or one of the possible ­instruments of seeding in NSW’: Minister for Health Brad Hazzard. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

NSW was under high alert on ­Friday after 77 swabs from COVID-19 tests conducted in Balmain and Rozelle in Sydney’s inner-west went missing, with Health Minister Brad Hazzard blaming “human error”.

Separately, the southwestern Sydney suburb of Casula emerged as a potential coronavirus hotspot after a man in his 50s and a 30-year-old woman from Liverpool, who were both at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula last weekend, tested positive for the virus.

The hotel was closed and a pop-up testing clinic was set up in the car park on Friday afternoon.

Mr Hazzard said the man and the woman had visited the pub separately on Saturday July 4.

Of the 14 new cases confirmed in the state on Friday, he said one of particular concern was a man in his 20s who had travelled to ­Sutherland in the city’s south from Melbourne with his caravan.

“I encourage others in a similar situation who may have come from Victoria, or Melbourne particularly, to make sure you are on high alert,” Mr Hazzard said.

“We want you to get tested, and it is crucial you do, because otherwise you will be the instrument of seeding, or one of the possible ­instruments of seeding in NSW.”

There has been a major public health scare in Balmain, where a Woolworths employee tested positive after returning from Bangladesh to Victoria, where he was quarantined. He then tested positive after leaving the hotel.

The 77 tests taken by NSW Health from people who may have had contact with the man were “misplaced in the rush”, Mr Hazzard said. “Obviously, from time to time, human error will occur. It’s a human system.”

Mr Hazzard appealed to the people who were tested: “Please come back. On behalf of NSW pathology, I’m sorry about that.”

The state’s opposition health spokesman, Ryan Park, said Mr Hazzard had to be upfront about what had taken place.

“It is unbelievable this has happened in the middle of a pandemic, and how the hell it has is the big question that needs to be answered,” Mr Park said.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said authorities were still investigating potential contacts by others who tested positive, including the case in Sutherland.

“We are currently interviewing him to ascertain that information,” Dr Chant said on Friday.

“At this time, because he was travelling in a car and in a caravan and did the trip quite swiftly, we understand he has not had any (exposure), or minimal exposure, on his route up here,” she said.

“It is just the person he is with in the caravan and one or two others that we are now exploring.”