Victoria exporting live corona cases across the nation

Probe ordered into how Victoria allowed a COVID-19 positive man to leave quarantine and travel to Sydney without a test.

United Security guards stationed at the doors outside quarantine hotel Crown Promenade, in Melbourne’s Southbank. Picture: Aaron Francis

Victoria has allowed a COVID-19 positive man to leave hotel quarantine and travel interstate without requiring a coronavirus test, sparking an infection scare in Sydney’s inner-west and a lockdown of 50 people.

A second interstate infection was also reported in the Northern Territory on Thursday after a man who had been in Victorian hotel quarantine, before visiting a Melbourne coronavirus hotspot, tested positive in Darwin.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt ordered the nation’s top health officials to investigate the NSW case after it emerged theman had tested positive to COVID-19 early in his stay in hotel quarantine in Melbourne, but been released later without a second test. The interstate spread of ­infection from the Andrews government’s hotel quarantine regime comes after a judicialinquiry was called into the operation of the program after breaches at two ­hotels resulting in at least 49 COVID-19 casesin private security contractors and their close contacts were genomically linked to much of Victoria’s renewed surge in infection rates.

Breaches of infection controls by private security contractors were blamed for the escape of the virus. The Australian revealed on Wednesday that the security companies were handed the contracts without tender as the Andrews government raced to implement a March national cabinet decision to lock down returning overseas travellers.

In the wake of the renewed surge in infections, 10 hotspot postcodes were locked down form midnight on Wednesday as the Andrews government battled to quash the latest outbreak. Victoria recorded a net increase of 72 cases on Thursday. There have now been 332 cases in Victoria with no known source — an increase of 31 since Wednesday.

The state has 413 active cases, an increase of 45 since Wednesday and 250 in a week.

Mr Hunt late on Thursday asked the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee “to review the facts and circumstances of the case’” of the NSW man. The man left quarantine, flew to Sydney, worked for two days at the Balmain Woolworths in Sydney’s inner west, and then tested positive to COVID-19, forcing 50 co-workers in a mandatory 14 days of self-isolation.

The Australian understands federal authorities believe the man may have had COVID-19 symptoms at the time he was released from quarantine.

The Andrews government defended its handling of the case. A spokeswoman said the man did not have symptoms when assessed two days before leaving quarantine and was released on that basis.

The man had tested positive for COVID-19 on June 16 and moved to a Melbourne CBD hotel where other coronavirus positive cases were being held on June 20.

He was assessed on June 24 and had “no symptoms” and was “cleared on the basis of resolution of symptoms” to be discharged from hotel quarantine and fly to Sydney on June 26, the spokeswoman said.

“From a public health perspective it’s gone above and beyond what the national criteria is,” she said. “That criteria does not involve another test. The criteria to clear someone is no symptoms for 72 hours. This bloke cleared that.”

Federal authorities said it was the “basic duty” of every state public health authority under AHPPC guidelines to ensure that a person was safe to leave hotel quarantine.

Having arrived in NSW, the man attended work on June 27 and 28, before being retested because he was showing symptoms on June 30. He returned a positive result the following day.

The NSW Health Department urged Balmain residents to be on alert from COVID-19 symptoms, as Woolworths performed a deep clean of the store and quarantined 50 staff who might have had contact with the man.

“NSW Health officials are contact tracing anyone else who may have been in contact with the man,” said the state’s Chief Health Officer, Kerry Chant.

“The man worked in the self-service section of Darling Street Woolworths and while we believe him to be a low-level risk of infection we are taking every precaution possible to protect the people on NSW.”

In the Northern Territory, which had not had a locally diagnosed case since April, a Darwin man in his 30s who had recently returned from a Melbourne hotspot tested positive.

The new case means the Top End jurisdiction reverses its success in eradicating the deadly disease. Health Minister Natasha Fyles said that would not alter her government’s plans to lift border restrictions on July 17. She said the man in his 30s was a Darwin resident who had been on an international trip.

The man flew to Darwin via Brisbane, arriving on Monday, after which he started to feel unwell. His positive diagnosis for COVID-19 was returned on Wednesday night.

In another incident, five people flying from Melbourne‘s COVID-19 hotspots into NSW were stopped at Sydney Airport as screening of travellers ramped up to identify individuals who could potentially spread the virus.

The five people — two from Queensland and three from the Northern Territory — were on their way home, returning from Victoria where they had been visiting family, an official said.

Under newly signed NSW Public Health Orders, people travelling from Melbourne postcodes identified as at-risk for COVID-19 are still allowed to transit through NSW without entering the state.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he had alerted Queensland and Northern Territory Health Ministers to the arrival of the five passengers, who would have to go into isolation.

The Andrews government on Thursday announced the terms of reference for the judicial inquiry into the hotel quarantine system.

Questions emerged over Jobs, Tourism and Major Events Minister Martin Pakula’s role in the decision to hire private contractors for hotel quarantine security roles, rather than follow a national cabinet recommendation to give the job to police or ADF personnel.

A Labor source suggested Mr Pakula, who shared responsibility establishing the quarantine system with Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, might have been seeking to provide jobs for security staff covered by the United Workers’ Union.

Mr Pakula, who “explicitly rejected” the “categorically untrue” suggestion, is affiliated with the National Union of Workers, which recently merged with United Voice to form the United Workers’ Union.

Additional reporting: Yoni Bashan