Coronavirus: Tracers swamped in Sydney hotel nightmare

Contact tracers face an almost impossible task of tracking down thousands of hotel patrons who visited the new Sydney virus epicentre.

Motorists queue for a COVID-19 test near the Crossroads Hotel at Casula in Sydney’s southwest, where health workers tried to clear a big backlog. Picture: John Feder

Contact tracers face an almost impossible task of tracking down thousands of hotel patrons who visited the epicentre of what is threatening to become the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in NSW.

Long queues of cars are expected to form outside a pop-up testing clinic at the Crossroads Hotel in Southwest Sydney on Tuesday after panicked locals flocked to get tested on Monday, overwhelming healthcare workers.

Health officials are also scrambling to work out how far the virus has spread throughout Sydney’s Southwest after the number of cases linked to the Crossroads Hotel doubled in 24 hours to 21 people on Monday.

“You can see how rapidly COVID-19 can spread (and) ah this point in time our efforts are focused on getting high rates of testing,” NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said on Monday.

The last time NSW faced a day of double-digit growth in cases was over two months ago in mid-April, yet despite clear signs of community transmission in Sydney’s southwest Dr Chant ruled out a localised lockdown.

“Whilst the fact that I’m announcing that we’ve had 21 cases linked to the Crossroads Hotel or that cluster, to some extent that represents a success because everyone of those cases we can find, we can stop that ongoing transmission.”

Some people who had joined the queue outside the Casula pop-up clinic on Monday told The Australian they had been waiting for more than four hours to get tested.

Retirees John and Heather Abernethy said they had arrived at 8am on Monday to get tested at the pub’s pop-clinic, but by 12.30pm they had still not answered a questionnaire or being seen by a healthcare worker.

“We were here last Monday for lunch and heard on the news last night that they wanted everyone to get tested,” Ms Abernethy, 69 said. “At our age you can’t be too careful.”

The couple, who both downloaded the COVIDSafe App in April, said they had received “no correspondence” from health authorities.

“Neither of us received an alert or notification on the app, so it makes me wonder if it’s even working,” Mr Abernethy, 68, said.

The sheer volume of people queuing up to get tested at the Crossroads Hotel prompted NSW Health to announce late on Monday that a second clinic would be opened from Tuesday at the Picton Imperial Hotel.

It came after a positive case was traced back to the Picton Hotel and Planet Fitness in Casula, and more worryingly, The Star Casino in Pyrmont.

Many of the people who flocked to the Crossroads Hotel clinic on Monday said they had decided to get tested despite the fact they had not visited the pub last week.

“I’ve had symptoms and now we know that the virus is already spreading in the community,” said Tracey Clothier, 58, from the nearby suburb of Ingleburn.

“The coronavirus is back and it’s definitely out there so I hope I don’t have it, but I wouldn’t be that surprised.”

Cars snaked around the block for about a kilometre by 11am on Monday, creating chaos on the Hume Highway.

The extraordinary demand for testing sparked a call from NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay to “massively” expand testing across Sydney’s southwest to reduce the hours-long waiting times that thousands of people were facing.

A nurse at the pop-up clinic, who asked not be named, said he had been called away “from a desk job” last week and had worked a 17-hour shift at the clinic on Friday to help NSW Health deal with the increased demand for testing.

“It’s crazy,” he told The Australian. “There’s so many people coming through, but it’s great because we are getting hundreds of people tested.”

Extended hours of testing had been made available at Liverpool, Campbelltown and Fairfield hospitals.