South Australia denies blame for man’s infection

The infection of a healthy man in Adelaide hotel quarantine was not a ‘breach’, the South Australian government has argued.

SA chief health officer Nicola Spurrier. Picture: Brenton Edwards

The infection of a healthy man in Adelaide hotel quarantine, who subsequently spread Covid to Victoria, was not a “breach”, the South Australian government has argued in a bid to avoid responsibility for the outbreak.

SA chief health officer Nicola Spurrier said it was a “misnomer” for Victorian Acting Premier James Merlino to describe the incident as a breach and that all steps had been taken in accordance with existing protocols.

Mr Merlino said on Thursday that the lockdown would not be happening if not for the transmission of the virus to the healthy man in SA.

Professor Spurrier insisted that the protocols had been followed after it emerged that a person inside the Playford Hotel had tested positive to Covid. That person was then moved to the Tom’s Court facility, a dedicated medi-hotel used to house people with positive tests.

An SA Health report released on Wednesday identified doors being opened between adjoining rooms at the Playford Hotel as the likely source of aerosol transmission from one infected guest to another.