Returned travellers in Sydney’s hotel quarantine say flaws may contribute to outbreak

Returning Australian travellers have suggested flaws in the hotel quarantine system may have sparked Sydney’s latest coronavirus outbreak.

The recent outbreak which has plunged the city’s Northern Beaches into lockdown is believed to have come from a woman who returned from the US on December 1.

Those who had to carry out the mandatory two week stay in the quarantine facilities have pointed out a few encounters which they found to be a bit too ‘lax’.

One Sydney resident who returned from New York in November was so ‘shocked’ at the fact her bus driver from the airport to the hotel wasn’t wearing a mask that she wrote to inform NSW Health.

Returning Australian travellers have suggested flaws in the hotel quarantine system may have sparked Sydney’s latest coronavirus outbreak (man in Sydney hotel)

Kashi Somers said the man would have been inside the packed bus for as long as two hours, noting his lack of mask would have been an ‘obvious and clear’ risk of transmission.

‘He’s not wearing a mask, he’s crowded in here with us, he’s literally one of the only people who is a way for Covid to get into the population. I just remember thinking I don’t understand what the process is here. Why isn’t he staying here at the hotel with us?’ she told The Guardian. 

Ms Somers also claimed she saw several members from the ADF who weren’t wearing their masks correctly.

Another returning Australian, Noelle Faulkner, who’d come back from the UK in November, said she was surprised at how relaxed the system was, adding her bus driver was also not wearing a mask. 

Some returned travellers said their bus driver wasn’t wearing a mask when transporting them to hotels for quarantine

One man staying in a Sydney hotel for his two week quarantine is seen collecting a bag of food

‘At the hotel, while we were waiting, this military guy was like motioning for me to stand closer so he could talk to me,’ she said.

‘It was just small talk, like ”where did you come from, how are you feeling”, I was like ”dude I don’t want to talk to you”. The whole thing felt like there was a lot of complacency – you could really feel it.’

Ms Faulkner eventually tested positive to the virus and was moved to a hotel managed by NSW Health – which she admits was run more efficiently. 

In another alarming revelation, one woman said she even saw a maskless guard chatting to guests while they had their doors open. 

Meanwhile, other Australians who quarantined in Sydney hotels said there was no issues with their stay and they never at all felt at risk of contracting the disease.

Health officials are yet to determine what led to the latest outbreak of the virus in the city.

NSW Chief Medical Officer, Kerry Chant, on Monday said all staff who had come into contact with the woman from the US had been tested and interviewed.

‘We’ve tested cleaners at the hotel. We’ve tested people who transported her when the person went to a health facility. We’ve looked at anyone who may have come in contact with her – even if they were wearing PPE,’ she said.

It was revealed this week that another confirmed case in Sydney was from a healthcare worker who had worked in the hotel quarantine system.

It was revealed this week that another confirmed case in Sydney was from a healthcare worker who had worked in the hotel quarantine system (pictured guests from a hotel quarantine facility in Sydney are moved to another accomodation)

Sydney now has 102 cases with eight new infections being recorded on Wednesday. 

One locally acquired case, reported on Tuesday but included in Wednesday’s numbers, is a contact of the infected western Sydney healthcare worker involved in patient transport. The source of their infection remains under investigation.

Genomic sequencing has shown that the healthcare worker’s virus is linked to the Avalon cluster but it is not clear how they caught the disease so they remain classified as unlinked.

The worker’s close contact travelled through Orange, 300km west of Sydney, on December 19 while infectious – putting the country town on high alert.

The Avalon cluster has been linked to 97 cases.