Rolling coverage: Holiday Inn traveller, worker test positive to coronavirus

A traveller who had just completed 14 days of quarantine and a hotel worker are the latest positive coronavirus cases to emerge from the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport.

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Another positive coronavirus case has been linked to the Holiday Inn just hours after the infection of a returned traveller was announced, taking the total number of cases to three.

The latest case is a hotel quarantine worker who had the same exposure period as the returned traveller whose positive result was announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Health Minister Martin Foley said he had learned of the case on the way to the press conference, with the result coming back minutes beforehand.

Contact tracers were interviewing the returned traveller and early signs suggested she did not leave her house after finishing quarantine except to get a COVID-19 test.

There is only one other primary close contact linked to the woman, but returned travellers who were on the same floor as the woman will also be required to isolate for 14 days.

The traveller quarantined at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport and left the facility on February 7.

She tested positive for coronavirus on February 9.

A Health Department statement said the traveller tested negative several times during her quarantine, and had largely stayed at home after leaving hotel quarantine.

The hotel worker has had the exact same exposure as the most recent case in the returned traveller.

Mr Foley said the latest case was a food and beverage worker and the floor on which the cases emerged at the hotel was no longer being used.

The case in the food and beverage worker was identified because they were nominated as a contact of the hotel quarantine worker who tested positive to the virus on Sunday.

Mr Foley said everyone on that floor at the Holiday Inn was now at greater risk and returned travellers from that floor who had completed their 14 days of quarantine would now be required to isolate for a further 14 days.

“We know this will come as difficult news to those people who have just completed their 14 days ... but it is a necessary public health move,” Mr Foley said.

He said there would appear to be no exposure sites from the returned traveller and only one close contact had been identified so far.

Health authorities are working on a theory that a family of three quarantining at the hotel are the source of the outbreak and that the two hotel workers picked up the virus without having close contact with the family themselves.

One of the family members has been revealed as the person now in ICU.

Two more infections have emerged from the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport. Picture: David Crosling

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the cases appeared to be genetically linked and defended Victoria’s hotel program.

“Cases can happen anywhere at any time and they can happen without a breach of protocol or without any particular erroring being made,” he said.

“We are talking about an incredibly infectious virus.

“We have known that airborne transmission is possible — the extent to which it occurs and how well you can reduce that risk is a matter for ongoing review.

“Victoria has been hit pretty hard this week and some of this relates to a single incident we will continue to maintain our focus on what has gone on.”

However, Mr Sutton said we should prepare ourselves for more cases from the hotel.

He said it was “likely” transmission occurred from the same floor even though there was not close contact between the cases.

The new cases come after an authorised officer working at the same Holiday Inn tested positive on Sunday.

It marks the fourth case of transmission within Victoria’s quarantine hotels in the past fortnight.

Daniel Andrews confirmed that a Melbourne hotel quarantine worker who tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday has the highly contagious UK strain. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

UK STRAIN IDENTIFIED IN QUARANTINE WORKER

It comes amid revelations a second Melbourne hotel quarantine worker who tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday has the highly contagious UK strain.

The news comes as Victoria recorded no new cases of community transmission in the past 24 hours following 12,816 tests.

The hotel quarantine worker — an authorised officer at the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport — is aged in her 50s.

Mr Andrews said eight primary social contacts for the hotel quarantine worker, and 136 work close contacts, were isolating.

Authorities increased testing in Melbourne’s northwest on Monday as they rushed to contain a potential outbreak.

Mr Andrews also revealed on Tuesday a person who had been in hotel quarantine, a returned traveller, had been transferred to intensive care overnight.

“One hotel quarantine case, however, has been transferred to hospital and I’m advised is in intensive care,” Mr Andrews said.

“That’s a returned traveller, not a community case but, of course, we send our best wishes to that person and their family and we again are reminded of the outstanding care that our health professionals provide to all of those who have been touched by this global pandemic.”

On the long wait times Melburnians were enduring to get tested, Mr Andrews said: “I want to remind people that the reason it sometimes takes a little bit of time to get through the queue is that we have to run those sites as safely as possible.

“We don’t want to turn a test location into a superspreading location.”

The Premier also responsed to experts who claimed that quarantine hotels were not fit to contain the mutating virus.

COVID testing in Melbourne’s western suburbs are under way.

ANDREWS DEFENDS HOTEL QUARANTINE SYSTEM

Mr Andrews defended the state’s hotel quarantine program, saying it was “one of the best” despite two COVID leaks.

“I can say it because it’s true,” he said.

“There’s not 3500 private security in our system (compared to NSW), do I need to go further than that?

“I am very confident we have a system that is worthy of being copied by others. It’s not about boasting, it’s a fact.

“If it were anything other than one of the best systems .... then I doubt very much any first ministers across the country would have agreed to copy it.”

When asked about whether Victoria’s quarantine hotels were fit for purpose, Mr Andrews said he believed the state’s program led the nation.

“We’ve ripped up the airconditioning in a number of these places and put new systems in,” he said.

“We’ve changed the way air flows.

We rip up the carpet in the common areas ... so we can clean shared spaces where there could be a transmission to an industrial standard.

“There’s 50 other points where we do things differently ... If you add it all together it’s a very risk averse model.

“I can’t rule out further changes.”

“As the virus changes our systems have to change and I suppose my message to the Victorian community is they can have confidence that we’re always looking to be a step ahead of this virus.”

Marciano’s Cakes in Maidstone is listed as an exposure site. Picture: David Geraghty

OFFICE RETURN PLANS PAUSED

Mr Andrews said plans to send 75 per cent of the private and public sector back to work were still paused, with discussions to be held later in the week.

But he also stressed that he believed the way Victorians worked may have permanently changed.

“I don’t think 100 per cent of people who worked in the city 100 per cent of the time are coming back,” Mr Andrews said.

“There is a percentage of people whose productivity has not been harmed by this but they’re quite keen on being able to maintain a day or two days a week at home.

“I will not be in the office as often as I used to be.

“Some meetings I would always have done in person I will do from home.

“This change is real and again I’m not necessarily happy about it. I’m not expecting people in the CBD to be joyous about it. I’m just trying to be frank and honest.”

Mr Andrews said the government would work to figure out what a new normal looked like.

“Maybe there is further support, different things we’ll have to do,” he said.

“Not just right now but over the months and years to come.

“Because their marketplace has fundamentally changed.”

HOTEL QUARANTINE STAFF STOOD DOWN AFTER POSITIVE CASE

The Holiday Inn hotel quarantine worker had tested negative on February 3 and 4 but, after two days off, returned to work on Sunday and was symptomatic an hour after her shift.

She then returned a positive test, prompting the government to stand down 80 quarantine workers for testing along with nine police officers and 12 Defence personnel.

Another 17 people are social and household contacts.

The new case came four days after a 26-year-old Noble Park man working at the Grand Hyatt for the Australian Open quarantine program tested positive.

Police Minister Lisa Neville, who is responsible for hotel quarantine, said it was not clear how the worker had been infected and genomic testing was under way.

It was also not clear whether the infected worker had any involvement with a family of three who tested positive at the Holiday Inn before being moved to a health hotel.

CCTV footage did not appear to show the authorised officer had done anything wrong during her shift.

“As we saw at the Grand Hyatt, she’s also been wearing masks as required,” Ms Neville said. “An authorised officer doesn’t sit on the floors … but is responsible for issuing the detention notices when they arrive. Their key role is to provide the legal framework for the detention and also the exit.”

Many answered the call to get tested.

Victorian Commander of Testing Jeroen Weimar said the department was taking a “worst-case scenario” approach but believed the woman had only become infectious on Saturday or Sunday. He said it was unlikely she had picked up the virus outside hotel quarantine.

“Her movements … have been relatively modest,” Mr Weimar said, after authorities listed three places she visited on Friday and Saturday.

“Our contact tracing approach looks at all options so we don’t close our minds to any possibility.

Mobile testing teams have been sent out to test the woman’s contacts or those who may have visited exposure sites.

Operating hours were also extended at the Shorten Reserve car park in West Footscray, Djerriwarrh Health Services in Melton West and Victoria University’s St Albans Campus to accommodate an expected increase in demand.

But demand was so strong in St Albans wait times blew out to 45 minutes on Monday night.

“Last week we surged in the southeast, now of course we turn to the northwest to see a surge in testing activity,” Mr Weimar said.

Off Ya Tree store at Watergardens Shopping Centre is listed as an exposure site.

Closed sign at Dan’s in Sunshine. Picture: David Geraghty

It comes as staff at a cake shop in Melbourne’s west said they learned through media reports, not from the Health Department, that they worked at an exposure site.

Marciano’s Cakes in Maidstone was declared a potential exposure site just before 1am on Monday because the quarantine hotel worker visited the shop on Friday afternoon.

In a Facebook post on Monday morning, Marciano’s Cakes staff said they had woken to the news their business, staff and customers were potentially exposed to the highly infectious coronavirus.

Victoria currently has 20 active cases, along with the new case in the hotel quarantine worker.

Originally published as Rolling coverage: Holiday Inn traveller, worker test positive to coronavirus