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Hotel quarantine worker in Sydney tests positive to COVID-19 – ruining NSW’s 25-day streak of no new infections and plunging hopes of restrictions easing into doubt
- A hotel quarantine worker in Sydney tested positive to COVID-19 on Wednesday
- The woman has been working at the Novotel and IBIS hotels in Darling Harbour
- NSW Health said urgent genome sequencing is underway find the source
A hotel quarantine worker has tested positive to COVID-19, ending New South Wales‘ 25-day virus-free streak.
The woman has been working at the Novotel and IBIS hotels in Sydney’s Darling Harbour where returned travellers have been staying.
NSW Health said urgent genome sequencing is underway to determine whether this is an infection acquired in the community or through work at the hotel quarantine facility.
Her family, who live in Minto, have returned negative tests, Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.
As a precaution, NSW Health is also conducting wider testing of staff at the hotel complex.
Anyone in the Minto area who have coronavirus symptoms are being asked to get tested.
The woman travelled from Minto to Central and on the Light Rail from Central to Darling Harbour on several occasions while potentially infectious.
NSW Health has asked people who travelled on the same services to get tested immediately and self-isolate, until further advised by NSW Health.
‘At 1.22am, I was advised in writing that we had found one case here in Sydney of COVID-19,’ he said.
‘We had up until 8pm to last night, we would have been saying today is a 26 day without any cases, but we now have one case. She worked at the Novotel and the Ibis at Darling Harbour.’
The new case comes after NSW began easing more social distancing restrictions following 25 days without any community transmission.
On Wednesday, Gladys Berejiklian announced capacity limits at restaurants, bars, churches and cafes would increase, with the restrictive 4-square-metre rule replaced with the 2-square-metre rule.
Nightclubs can reopen with up to 50 people allowed on the dance floor at any one time from Monday next week.
Stand-up drinking will be allowed once again, but only in outdoor settings including beer gardens and roof bars.
Revellers in pubs and bars will have to stay seated at indoor venues.
But hours later New South Wales Health issued an urgent warning Sydney residents living in 12 suburbs after fragments were found in sewage at a water treatment plant.
The warning was raised on Wednesday after health authorities detected the virus in the sewage system that drains Riverstone, Vineyard, Marsden Park, Shanes Park, Quakers Hill, Oakville, Box Hill, The Ponds, Rouse Hill, Nelson, Schofields and Colebee in the city’s north-west.
The alert follows a handful of similar discoveries in sewage water across Australia’s east coast in recent weeks despite almost non-existent levels of community transmission.
More to come
