Coronavirus: Quarantine worker breaks NSW 25 day streak

Ibis and Novotel hotel staff told to monitor for symptoms after woman who worked in quarantine tests positive.

The Ibis Hotel, Darling Harbour

NSW’s 25 day streak without a case of coronavirus has been broken after a woman working in a Sydney hotel was diagnosed with the virus, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.

Mr Hazzard asked people who worked at the Ibis and Novotel hotels to monitor for symptoms and self isolate, after a woman who worked at a police quarantine hotel recorded a positive test.

#BREAKING: NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has confirmed that a hotel quarantine worker in Sydney has tested positive for COVID-19.

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— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) December 2, 2020

“We had up until 8pm to last night, we would have been saying today is a 26 day without any cases, but we now have one case,” Mr Hazzard told Seven’s Sunrise.

“This particular lady worked in hotels in Sydney. She worked at the Novotel and the Ibis at Darling Harbour. One of those is a police quarantine hotel, so we are doing all the investigations.”

Mr Hazzard asked anyone who worked at the Ibis on Friday the 27th, or the Novotel on Saturday the 28th, Sunday the 29th or Monday, 30 November, to self isolate and monitor for symptoms until they could be tested.

Despite the setback, Mr Hazzard said it was unlikely to delay the easing of restrictions in NSW.

“I doubt it very much because NSW has taken a very open policy right along and we have a fantastic public health team that manages these things extremely well.

“We are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic … Premier of NSW, Gladys Berejiklian, said that she anticipated that we would have more cases.”