Health authorities investigate COVID-19 outbreaks at quarantine hotels in Australia

2021-04-22 02:35:49 GMT2021-04-22 10:35:49(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

SYDNEY, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Health authorities of two Australian states are investigating a spate of apparent transmissions of COVID-19 between people staying in hotel quarantine.

In the New South Wales (NSW) capital city of Sydney, two family members and a third person who had all been on the same flight earlier this month, tested positive for the variant strain that first identified in South Africa. That two family members had been in a room at the quarantine hotel close to that of the third person.

All three tested negative on their day-two swabs in hotel quarantine, before subsequently testing positive.

All three people were transferred to the Special Health Accommodation and will remain there until they are no longer infectious. Investigation is continuing into how the transmission occurred and hasn't identified any further cases of transmission to date, NSW Health said on Thursday

The case comes just days after NSW Health confirmed the spread of COVID-19 between three family members while in quarantine in another Sydney hotel.

An investigation has been launched into that case after the family members tested positive to the same variant of the virus as a family-of-four who had been staying in an adjacent room at the hotel. NSW Health said all contacts tested to date have returned negative results.

NSW Health is urging everyone in the state with even the mildest symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, cough, sore throat or runny nose, to come forward immediately for testing, then isolate until they receive a negative result.

At the same time, in the Western Australia (WA) capital of Perth, two people in returned overseas travellers from India were believed to have contracted the variant COVID strain first detected in Britain, who were in a nearby room.

The WA Health Department said on Wednesday that the infections had previously been reported as being acquired overseas, but genome sequencing data had revealed the two people caught the virus at the hotel.

Following the announcement, WA Premier Mark McGowan called on Australia to consider temporarily banning all travellers from India from entering the country.

"WA has been COVID-free for a year now, and I want to keep it that way," McGowan said. Enditem

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