Australia has recorded more cases of the highly infectious COVID-19 variant which has forced England into lockdown.
WA Premier Mark McGowan on Tuesday confirmed three people in Perth hotel quarantine had now been found to have the more transmissible variant after NSW, Victoria and South Australia had all previously recorded cases in returned overseas travellers.
The UK variant is believed to be up to 70 per cent more infectious than the original, causing havoc in England and prompting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to order a new national lockdown until at least mid-February.
Premier Mark McGowan said the genomic testing had confirmed the UK strain, emphasising the importance of the secure quarantine arrangements.
“It just goes to show that we’re not out of the woods with COVID,” the premier said on Tuesday.
“It’s insidious. It’s out there, it’s causing havoc around the world. It’s causing mass deaths in Britain and the United States.
“We are COVID free, and therefore we are very fortunate and I want to keep it that way.
“I want us to keep the virus out and make sure that we do everything we can to prevent it from coming into our state, including keeping borders in place.”
Mr McGowan has also backed testing returning travellers before they board flights to Australia, especially those coming out of places like the UK and the USA.
“I think it would be a great safety mechanism to ensure that people coming out of many countries around the world have a test and confirm they are negative before they board a flight with hundreds of other Australians,” he said.
“And I think that safety measure should be implemented. To me, this is a no brainer.
“If we do this, we can better protect our citizens.”
WA reported one new COVID-19 case on Tuesday, a man in his 30s who recently returned from overseas and is in hotel quarantine.
Where else has the UK variant been detected?
Victorian Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said the state had seen up to five cases of the UK strain so far.
“(Our) job is to make sure that our hotel quarantine system is as robust and strong as possible, that this does not get out, whether it’s the UK strain or any other strain,” she said.
Ms Neville said health authorities are also becoming increasingly concerned about the number of positive COVID-19 cases among international flight crew who are quarantining in Melbourne.
Eight out of just over 1000 flight crew who have arrived in the last two weeks have been positive.
“This is over and above the averages we are seeing in international returned travellers,” Ms Neville said.
Last month, the Victorian government started requiring all returning international flight crews to go into mandatory hotel quarantine.
“Everyone needs to follow the lead around quarantining and testing the fight crew, it is absolutely critical given the numbers we are seeing.”
For NSW, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said there was “no one silver bullet” to keep the community safe from variant viruses which are moving across the world.
“Just because you’re tested a couple of days before you get on the plane, you can develop the infection on the plane, you can develop as you’re getting off the plane, or the next day,” she said.
“It is about that universal approach, making sure we treat anyone with COVID as highly infectious and making sure we go through all of the end-to-end chains to ensure that we don’t have any incursion events in our community.”
Acting NSW Premier John Barilaro said measures would always be put in place to protect Australians.
“We’re learning, like any other nation, there’s no playbook or rule book that shows you how to manage a global pandemic at the scale we’ve seen,” he said on Tuesday.
Dr Chant said she had been in contact with other countries to assess how variants are affecting immune-compromised patients.
“Clearly, there’s concerns of this emergence of strains, not just from the UK but in other parts of the world, that may be associated with increased transmissibility,” she said.
“Recognising the rate of disease internationally is increasing, so the threat level is never higher than at the current time.”
Another international strain – a South African variant – was detected in a woman who arrived in Queensland on 22 December who went straight into hotel quarantine.
More than 30 countries around the world have recorded cases of the South African or UK coronavirus variants including the US, Lebanon, Singapore, Pakistan, India, South Korea, Japan, France, Germany and Italy.
The World Health Organisation is yet to determine whether the new variants could undermine COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out around the world.
People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others. Check your jurisdiction’s restrictions on gathering limits.
If you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms, stay home and arrange a test by calling your doctor or contact the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080. News and information is available in 63 languages at sbs.com.au/coronavirus.
Please check the relevant guidelines for your state or territory: NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, ACT, Tasmania.
