The Victorian government won’t go ahead with plans to increase its weekly cap on international arrivals, as an outbreak at a quarantine hotel grows to three cases.
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the state won’t increase its weekly hotel quarantine capacity from 1120 to 1310 as planned on Monday, due to the outbreak at the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport.
“Victorians have given a lot and I won’t run the risk until we know and understand exactly the nature of the challenge that this changing virus presents to us,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
The two latest cases confirmed on Tuesday are a returned traveller, who tested positive after finishing her 14-days in quarantine, and a food and beverage worker.
An authorised officer at the hotel also tested positive to the highly-infectious UK strain on Sunday.
The cases were officially included in Wednesday’s tally and come after an authorised officer at the hotel tested positive to the highly-infectious UK strain of the virus last week.
Mr Andrews said the trio’s close contacts have been tested and a number of exposure sites have been listed on the Department of Health’s website.
He described the emerging mutant strains of COVID-19 as a “very significant cause for concern”.
“These hyper infectious strains are proving very difficult to contain and that’s a real challenge,” Mr Andrews said.
“We need to redouble our efforts to do more and to respond to that unique challenge.”
A COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria spokeswoman confirmed the Holiday Inn will be closed “until further notice” for “terminal cleaning, and with detailed contact tracing and investigations underway”.
About 135 staff at the hotel were stood down on Tuesday night and were told to get tested and then isolate at home for 14 days, bringing the total number of staff isolating to 220.
Forty-eight guests of the hotel considered primary close contacts will be transferred to the Pullman Melbourne to quarantine for an “extended number of days”.
“We understand this will be difficult news to receive and will do everything we can to ensure the health and wellbeing of these residents are supported during their new quarantine period,” the spokeswoman said.
“The transfer of the residents will be sequenced and coordinated, and there will be careful management of infection prevention and control measures.”
The returned traveller had tested negative several times during her stay, which ended on Sunday. She got tested again on Monday after learning of the outbreak.
The woman did not leave home other than to get tested and only one primary close contact has been identified so far.
The food and beverage worker worked on the same floor as the returned traveller and was identified as a close contact of the positive authorised officer.
Three cases linked to nebuliser, authorities believe
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton believes the three cases are linked to a nebuliser, used by a guest at the Holiday Inn who was taken to intensive care on Tuesday.
“It vaporises medication or liquid into a very fine mist,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“If that’s breathed in, especially when it’s used as medication, and someone is infectious … then that picks up the virus, and that mist can then be suspended in the air with very very fine aerosolised particles.
“We need to be acutely aware of the possibility of everyone who was on that floor, in particular, being exposed to that.”
Professor Sutton said it was possible everyone on that floor of the hotel has been exposed to the virus.
“The risk with an aerosolised virus is very substantial and so I think we should expect more cases,” he said.
Commissioner for COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria Emma Cassar said the guest had not reported the nebuliser when arriving at the hotel.
Returned travellers who require the use of such devices are usually sent to a health hotel, she added.
“I’m sure they didn’t believe they were doing the wrong thing, but we are taking extra steps to make sure those machines are not in the hotel,” the premier said.
“This was a personal machine. It will be linked to this underlying condition, whether it’s asthma or something like that.”
Authorities have updated a list of possible exposure sites in Sunbury, in Melbourne’s northwest.
Anyone who visited these venues at the specified times must get tested and isolate for 14 days.
There have been five cases of COVID-19 across three Victorian quarantine hotels within a week, with three confirmed to be the more infectious UK strain.
More than 950 hotel quarantine staff across the state are isolating.
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