Covid 19: Australia: Sydney hotel quarantine outbreak fears

Fears are rising of a potential Sydney hotel quarantine outbreak after a traveller was infected with the identical Covid strain to a couple based in an adjacent room.

NSW Health is frantically investigating the development, with the viral sequence of all three cases confirmed as the same.

It remains unknown how the transmission occurred on the fourth floor of the Radisson Blu quarantine hotel in the CBD.

Genomic sequencing revealed all three cases have identical viral sequences of the Alpha strain.

The media release (pictured) from NSW Health confirming the three positive cases

All three positive Covid cases are in hotel quarantine at Radisson Blu (pictured) in Sydney’s CBD

In a statement on Tuesday night, NSW Health confirmed the three positive cases in hotel quarantine (pictured healthcare workers transport a person into a patient transport vehicle)

The couple, who were asymptomatic, returned a positive Covid reading following a test on June 3.

The other returned traveller returned a negative day two test on June 3, before developing symptoms and testing positive two days later on June 5, according to 7News.com.au.

In a statement on Tuesday night, NSW Health confirmed the three positive cases. 

‘Early possibilities as to where transmission may have occurred from the couple to the secondary case include on the flight, on transport from the airport to the hotel, in the lobby of the hotel, or while in quarantine,’ the statement read.

‘Currently, there is no evidence of further transmission.’

All three positive cases arrived into Sydney on the same flight from Doha in Qatar on June 1. 

As a precautionary measure, all returned travellers who stayed on the fourth floor between June 1 and 5 and were subsequently discharged will be contacted by NSW Health.

They must also get tested and self-isolate be receiving further advice.