Coronavirus: Passengers’ isolation confusion

Australians who have returned home aboard flights where passengers have since tested positive for the Omicron variant were not tested at the airport or required to show vaccination certificates.

Passengers arrive at Sydney airport from Fiji on Wednesday. Picture: Christian Gilles

Australians returning home aboard flights where passengers have since tested positive for the Omicron variant were not tested at Sydney Airport or required to show vaccination certificates or test results, and were only required to isolate for three days.

Many who were crammed shoulder to shoulder for eight hours on Singapore Airlines flight SQ 231, which arrived in Sydney on Sunday from Singapore, have been alarmed to discover the eighth NSW case of Omicron ­arrived on the same plane.

Although that person went into 14 days’ quarantine, dozens of fellow passengers have been out and about in the community since Wednesday as permitted by NSW Health, after three days isolating and passing a single PCR test.

Concerns have risen further as health officials now fear three other confirmed Omicron cases who flew into Sydney on a Qatar flight last week contracted the virus on the plane, as they had not been in southern Africa.

Genomic testing has revealed Omicron transmission is already occurring in the NSW community, with three school students in western Sydney testing positive.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard announced the transmission on Friday, adding genomic sequencing was under way for 10 other students who had tested positive. “This is of concern … this is the first case we know of that appears not to have had any travel history,” he said, before the second and third students returned a positive result.

Since Sunday, NSW has recorded at least one Omicron case a day, with the state total now 13. Australia has recorded two further cases; a man who flew to Darwin on November 25 and a person in the ACT.

On Friday, NSW reported its highest daily caseload in six weeks, recording 337 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm Thursday.

Since new measures were implemented at midnight last Sunday, passengers have been left confused over when to emerge from mandatory isolation. Upon arrival, they’re instructed to perform three Covid tests – within 24 hours of arriving, on day six and on day 12. It says they should isolate for three days and if they have not heard from NSW Health to phone it on a provided number.

At 10pm on Thursday, passengers who’d completed three-day isolation after returning to Sydney on Singapore Airlines flight SQ231 learned a fellow passenger was positive for the new variant.

“We breathed the same air, had our meals at the same time, and I was sitting next to a passenger who had just come from South Africa,” said passenger Tully Burne.

Once they had departed the aircraft, passengers were not required to produce any proof of vaccination, he said.

Health advice was different for passengers on Qatar flight QR908 from Doha to Sydney, ­arriving on November 23, and Singapore Airlines flight SQ211, arriving on November 28. All passengers on both flights have been told to isolate for 14 days.