“All staff and residents at the hotel during the exposure period of 27 January and 9 February are considered primary close contacts and need to quarantine,” the spokesperson said.“Approximately 135 staff across all programs at the hotel were stood down last night and instructed to quarantine for 14 days at home and get retested.“So that we can rule out any potential coronavirus transmission while investigations are continuing, CQV has informed 48 residents at the hotel that they are considered primary close contacts.“These residents began being transferred to the Pullman Melbourne from 8am this morning to quarantine an extended number of days.”Forty eight guests were moved out of Holiday Inn on Wednesday morning
HOLIDAY IN CASES DETAILEDPremier Daniel Andrews said in the most recent case involving a hotel quarantine worker, they last worked at the hotel on February 4 and tested negative.They developed symptoms on February 6 and on February 8 were told they were a primary close contact of the previous positive case at the Holiday Inn.The worker was tested on February 9 and returned a positive result.That person visited several sites in Sunbury that were released by authorities late on Tuesday (see below).Thirteen social and community close contacts linked to this case were tested within hours, Mr Andrews said.Five so far have returned negative results.The hotel quarantine resident who tested positive, left the hotel on February 7 and returned a positive result on February 8.There were no exposure sites linked to this case as they didn’t leave home, Mr Andrews said. On the authorised officer who tested positive on February 7, Mr Andrews said of the eight household and social primary contacts, six had returned negative tests.On a family of three at the Holiday Inn, it was now believed the transmission of the highly contagious UK strain happened before they arrived in Australia.Mr Andrews said: “Two members of this family remain in hotel quarantine with our support, and one member of that family has been moved to hospital.“That person is dealing with some very significant health challenges.”Mr Andrews said anyone who had spent more than 15 minutes in the Holiday Inn between January 27 and February 9 – workers, residents or visitors – were now considered a primary close contact and needed to isolate for 14 days and get tested.TRACES DETECTED IN WASTEWATERHealth Minister Martin Foley said traces had been detected in wastewater in several Melbourne locations – Coburg, Reservoir, Glenwood, Broadmeadows and Roxburgh Park.“We have uncovered a number of unexpected detections, something to which we now know we need to be alert to,” he said.“If you have been to those areas in 48 hours through to the morning of February 8, monitor symptoms.”On Tuesday, Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton flagged that a “root and branch” review of the program, handled by Australia’s medical expert panel, would look at how the nation’s quarantine programs could deal with more transmissible variants.SCHOOLS SHUT IN SUNBURY
Two schools in Melbourne’s northwest have been closed after seven venues from Sunbury were added to the list of public exposure sites.Gerard Delaney from Catholic Education Melbourne said Salesian College in Sunbury and St Anne’s in Sunbury closed on Wednesday following advice from health authorities.Salesian principal Mark Brockhus sent a message to parents late on Tuesday confirming the school would close as a precautionary measure.“Some members of our community have been in close contact with a confirmed case, the only sensible thing to do is not take any risks,” he wrote.“I know this will come as a shock to many.“However I hope that you can appreciate that we don’t want to take risks with this very transmissible virus.”
Hotel quarantine travellers are being evacuated from the Holiday Inn
The school said they were waiting on further Department of Health advice on Wednesday.Both schools are not listed as public exposure sites.Seven venues in the satellite city, north of the airport, were added to the alerts list by the health department late on Tuesday night (see below).The Department of Health released the latest statewide numbers on Wednesday morning, confirming two cases had been acquired locally in the past 24 hours.In the same period 22,849 tests were conducted.There are now 16 active cases in Victoria.Health Minister Martin Foley on Tuesday revealed a female guest staying at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport and a food and beverage employee, who had worked on site, had tested positive.
It marks the fifth case of transmission within Victoria’s quarantine hotels in the past fortnight.Contact tracers interviewed the traveller and believe she did not leave her house after finishing quarantine, except to get a COVID-19 test, and has one primary close contact.She tested negative multiple times during her hotel stay, left the facility on February 7 and then tested positive two days later.Later on Tuesday afternoon, a second case emerged in a hotel quarantine worker at the same location.The employee had the same exposure period as the returned traveller and had been tested due to being a contact of the authorised officer who tested positive on Sunday.NEW EXPOSURE SITE DETAILS RELEASEDHealth officials issued an alert on Tuesday night over several Sunbury businesses that were identified as exposure sites.The updated list included a bottle shop and a massage business.Authorities also adjusted the exposure site times for Off Ya Tree in Watergardens to 17 minutes earlier.Anyone who visited the Taylors Lakes store from 1pm to 1.52pm must immediately isolate, get a COVID-19 test and remain isolated for 14 days.Sites visited by COVID-positive cases include:— Sunbury: PJ’s Pet Warehouse. 3:37pm – 4:10pm on 5.2.2021. —Sunbury: Bakers Delight at Sunbury Square Shopping Centre. 3:40pm – 4:15pm on 5/2/2021. —Sunbury: Al Dente Deli at Sunbury Square Shopping Centre. 3:45pm – 4:23pm on 5/2/2021. —Sunbury: Sushi Sushi at Sunbury Square Shopping Centre. 3:53pm – 4:28pm on 5/2/2021. —Sunbury: Asian Star at Sunbury Square Shopping Centre: 3:57pm – 4:30pm on 5/2/2021. —Sunbury: Sunny Life Massage at Sunbury Square Shopping Centre. 4:30pm – 6:30pm on 6/2/2021. —Sunbury: Cellarbrations, 34 Batman Ave. 6:17pm – 7:02pm on 6/2/2021. —Sunbury: Cellarbrations, 34 Batman Ave. 5:44pm – 6:19pm 7/2/2021. 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 quarantine would now need 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.Details of the second new case were slim, with news of the infection coming through minutes before Mr Foley spoke to the media.HEALTH AUTHORITIES WORK NEW THEORYHealth authorities are working on the theory a family of three quarantining at the hotel may be the source of the outbreak and the two hotel workers picked up the virus without having close contact with them.One of the family members has been revealed as the person now in ICU.Prof Sutton said the new, more infectious variants posed a threat across Australia.“I want a root and branch review like everyone else,” he said. “My understanding is that it is front and centre for discussions among chief health officers in coming days.“It will be an end-to-end review of all the mitigations that can be put into place, including the testing before somebody leaves their country of origin.”Prof Sutton said it was unlikely the female guest had contracted a variant of the virus with a longer incubation time.
Victorian COVID exposure sites
Instead, investigators believe all the recent Holiday Inn cases are linked, and the woman was exposed to the virus just before being tested as she left quarantine, meaning the virus could not be detected until days later.“The focus of our attention is on transmission that might have occurred on the relevant floor where positive cases were known to be,” Prof Sutton said.Australia’s medical expert panel — the AHPPC — will this week review the procedures around hotel quarantine after multiple states recorded cases of the mutated strains from South Africa and the UK.
Federal chief medical officer Paul Kelly has asked the NSW Health team to provide the national body with a report into the state’s day-16 testing scheme before the panel advises the federal government on what should change. “We’ve seen some cases of the variants of concerns in several states now relating to hotel quarantine,” Prof Kelly said. “Last week at national cabinet there was a specific discussion about improving the quality of our already very high standard hotel quarantine. Can it be improved? Of course.” Melbourne University epidemiologist Tony Blakely said the quarantine system needed an urgent overhaul to place as many arrivals as possible in regional areas, as well as vaccinating all workers and improving hotels for cases that must stay in the CBD.
THE FIVE QUARANTINE CASES
“We do have a problem, and the problem arises because we have more people arriving in the country who are infected, and they are coming in with more infectious variants. And we have a system that does not appear to be coping,” he said.Because most new COVID-19 cases arriving in Australia are now carrying the more infectious strains, Ivo Mueller of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute believes there is a greater chance of spread within quarantine.With greater testing of guests also identifying asymptomatic cases which may have been missed last year, Prof Mueller believes the increase in cases is no cause for alarm — provided the system continues to evolve.“It is great that we are trying to reduce the amount of spreading in hotel quarantine, we are going to continue seeing occasional cases that are transmitted in that system because no system is perfect and the virus is highly infectious,” Prof Mueller said. Early detection of such cases meant “we should not be panicking”. Victoria recorded no new cases of community transmission in the previous 24 hours, after 12,816 tests.
The Splash
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