On Monday, the premier addressed reporters and announced that only one locally acquired case was recorded overnight – marking the state’s first local case in 55 days.A 47-year-old man who works as a security guard at two quarantine hotels in Sydney tested positive for the virus on Saturday night after contracting it from a returned traveller staying at the Sofitel Wentworth.He then worked at the Mantra quarantine hotel on Friday while infectious and contact tracers are scrambling to reach out to all colleagues who worked night shift with him.NSW Health officials said genomic sequencing determined the man to be positive for the UK strain of COVD-19, which is believed to be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than other variants.“While the source of the new case’s infection is still under investigation, genomic sequencing results received last night show a match to the viral strain of a COVID-positive returned traveller who was in the Sofitel Wentworth quarantine hotel while infectious,” a NSW Health alert detailed.“The genome sequencing results indicate the strain found in the hotel quarantine guest and security guard is the more transmissible B1.1.7 variant of the virus (also known as the UK variant).“Testing continues on close contacts of the case, who remains asymptomatic. The man’s household contacts have all tested negative, and will continue to self-isolate for 14 days.”The security guard also received the first dose of the first Pfizer vaccine on March 2.NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said although the security guard did work on the same floor as the infected returned traveller, he adhered to COVID-safe measures.That has left health officials stumped as to how the guard contracted the virus.“Investigations have confirmed this gentleman did work a shift on the same floor, floor 11, in the Sofitel when the international returned traveller was infectious; genomic sequencing indicates they are a match,” Dr Chant said.“(But) we did review the CCTV footage and can I just say this gentleman was exemplary in his adherence to the procedures for mask wearing and other protections and precautions. So we haven’t been able to find an exact source or explanation for how this person became infected. “We are testing everyone; coworkers of this gentleman to just check there is not someone else who may have been an intermediary who transmitted to this gentleman and we are also going to be re- swabbing everyone on floor 11 today.”Dr Chant also said there “may be additional cases”.“We identified 167 staff who worked at the Mantra hotel with the security guard,” Dr Chant said. “We have text messaged all of them and spoken with the vast majority, 157 of the 167, and a number of them have presented for testing. “We will follow up and we will be assessing that. Those individuals will be told to be in isolation the 14 days if they were in contact with the gentleman.”Ms Berejiklian said it was inevitable that leaks would occur in hotel quarantine.“We’re pleased about those numbers but encourage everyone with the mildest symptoms to come forward,” Ms Berejiklian said on Monday.“I wasn’t commenting yesterday on this, but I will say while it is always concerning to have a case outside of overseas travellers, it is not surprising; we always know it is a high risk.“However, let’s not overreact. It is just the one case.”Three new cases announced in NSW on Monday were acquired overseas, and one overseas case reported last week was found to be an old infection following further investigation.There were also 8,199 tests in NSW reported to 8pm last night.More to come.
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