Fears Delta Covid-19 variant can spread with just ‘five to 10 seconds’ of contact reignite calls for regional quarantine facility

The unprecedented virulence of the Delta variant of Covid-19 makes a regional quarantine facility a must, the Queensland Government says.

Fears the highly infectious Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus can spread after just five to 10 seconds of contact have reignited Queensland’s push for a regional quarantine facility.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the new variant meant the pandemic virus was posing a much greater risk than a year ago when experts were warning of 15 minutes of close contact being a concern.

Dr Young said genomic sequencing had identified another case of the virus spreading in hotel quarantine in Queensland, transmitting from one room to people in another on the same floor of the Brisbane Airport Novotel Hotel.

It’s the second time this month, and the fourth time during the pandemic, the virus has spread in a Brisbane quarantine hotel, after transmission between guests staying on different floors of the inner-city Four Points Hotel.

A woman in hotel quarantine at the Brisbane Airport Novotel Hotel, where Covid-19 has spread on floor five. Picture: Liam Kidston

The Novotel case involved a guest on floor five of the hotel spreading the Delta variant of the virus to a couple in an adjacent room, possibly through the simple act of “people opening their doors”.

“We’ve seen unfortunately, that happen across the country in our hotels,” Dr Young said.

Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly admitted the variants of concern that are more transmissible, such as the Delta strain, “add a degree of complexity” to the hotel quarantine system.

But he said: “it still remains a very safe system” amid an ongoing war of words between the state and federal governments over the building of a regional quarantine facility in Queensland.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles used the Novotel cluster, and an outbreak of the Delta variant in Sydney, to repeat calls for the Federal Government to reconsider Queensland’s proposal for a quarantine facility near Wellcamp Airport, west of Toowoomba.

“We’ve been saying for some time now, months and months, that hotel quarantine is not proving as effective as it was with the earlier strains,” Mr Miles said.

“There has been a very long time in which we could have built and have operating regional quarantine facilities but the Morrison Government has refused to co-operate with us.”

Mr Miles said Prime Minister Scott Morrison had stipulated a regional quarantine facility had to be on Commonwealth land.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young with Deputy Premier Steven Miles in background during a Covid-19 media briefing. Picture: John Gass

Federal guidelines state the quarantine facility, once built, should be “Commonwealth owned to provide an enduring asset to support resilience”.

“They’ve assessed defence facilities in Queensland and determined none are suitable,” Mr Miles said.

“That doesn’t leave any other suitable Commonwealth land.

“They’ve effectively ruled out a regional quarantine facility here in Queensland with their repeated additions of new requirements, new Federal Government criteria.”

Mr Miles pleaded with the Federal Government to reconsider Queensland’s Wellcamp proposal.

“We think it is the best available option,” he said.

“It can be up and running sooner, cheaper, and will be larger.

“We’ll have greater capacity than the Victorian proposal.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also took another swipe at the Federal Government over the lack of a regional quarantine facility in Queensland.

“I stress, we need to have regional quarantine,” she said.

“This Delta variant is spreading quickly in our hotels.”

Queensland recorded one new case of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 yesterday, detected in hotel quarantine of a person with the Delta variant who had recently arrived from Zambia.

Originally published as Fears Delta Covid-19 variant can spread with just ‘five to 10 seconds’ of contact reignite calls for regional quarantine facility