Genomic sequencing has confirmed a hotel quarantine worker in Melbourne was infected with a highly-contagious coronavirus variant as health authorities revealed the state had recorded no new locally-transmitted cases.
Two days after the new infection was announced, nearly all close household and social contacts of the 26-year-old man from Nobel Park in Melbourne’s southeast have so far tested negative for the virus, with one result still pending.
Authorities said there was little doubt the 26-year-old was infected while working as a support worker at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, one of three locations being used to quarantine Australian Open tennis players, officials and staff.
The Department of Health on Friday confirmed that no new cases of community transmission had been recorded in the 24 hours to midnight, following 14,612 tests in 24 hours. Three returning international travellers had tested positive in hotel quarantine in the same period.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the result was among “the very best outcomes we could have hoped for”, but warned that positive cases could still be identified over the following days.
“Those he has spent the most time with during his most infectious period have all, to this point, come back negative,” he said on Friday, with 16 of 17 close contacts testing negative.
The last result is expected to be returned on Friday.
“It doesn’t mean that they might not test positive at a later point and that’s why them completing the isolation and doing as we’ve asked them to do is so important. But these are good signs, very good signs, that we caught this in good time.”
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton on Friday confirmed the hotel worker had contracted the “more transmissible” B117 variant of the virus, first identified in the United Kingdom, but the exact source of the virus was still unknown.
He said authorities had been working on the assumption the infection would be the new variant, with four of six residents who had tested positive for the virus in the hotel infected with it.
“As we’ve said previously, there was no apparent breach in infection prevention and control protocols, or PPE (Personal Protective Equipment),” he said.
“We’re confident at the moment it’s not been picked up in the community but from one of the residents in the hotel.”
The state’s COVID-19 Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar said a further 743 work contacts have been identified, as have 507 tennis players, officials and staff.
Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley said 495 of those had returned negative results, with just 12 still pending after being tested late on Thursday.
“It’s a timing thing,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday. “Hopefully in the next few hours we get that positive outcome that all are negative.”
Melbourne Park lead-up matches will resume on Friday after a brief suspension on Thursday.
Mr Tiley said the Open would go ahead as planned from next Monday and there had been no change to daily crowd arrangements, initially capped at 25,000 to 30,000.
With AAP.
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