A third case of coronavirus has been discovered at a Melbourne hotel within 24 hours, bringing the growing cluster up to 11.
An assistant manager at the Holiday Inn in Tullamarine took a Covid-19 test on Wednesday and received a positive result on Thursday.
Victoria’s Deputy Secretary of Community Engagement and Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar said the woman has been in isolation since Monday or Tuesday.
‘She was already a primary close contact,’ he said.
Pictured: pedestrians wearing masks walk past the Pullman Hotel on February 11 in Melbounre
Pictured: Victorian police guarding the Pullman Hotel on February 11 in Melbourne after an outbreak
Two new coronavirus cases linked to the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport outbreak were reported on Thursday afternoon after Victorian officials previously announced in the morning that no new cases had been found.
The cases are household primary contacts of workers at the hotel who had previously tested positive.
The Victorian Department of Health and Human services previously announced on Wednesday that a worker at the quarantine hotel a ‘previous resident who exited the facility on February 7’ had also tested positive.
Pictured: Jeroen Weimar, Deputy Secretary for Community Engagement & Testing Commander gives a press conference on February 11
Pictured: Pedestrians wearing masks walk past the Pullman Hotel on February 11 amid outbreak
‘It is our working assumption therefore that all 11 cases associated with the Holiday Inn cluster are all of the UK variant,’ Mr Weimar said.
South Australia has closed their border to residents of greater Melbourne as of Thursday in response to the hotel outbreak.
SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said police have been deployed to regional checkpoints to enforce the border closure.
Quarantining hotel guest at the Holiday Inn near the Airport are moved to a new location in Melbourne on Wednesday. A review of the state’s hotel quarantine system is underway after two new cases of COVID-19 were linked to the hotel
Doctors walked hotel guests from the lobby to awaiting buses taking them to the Pullman hotel
He also said officials were attempting to track down anyone that had already traveled across the border that might have been to the affected areas.
‘Our SA Health experts are reaching out to anybody who might have been in one of the affected zones and particularly the hotel itself. We’re making contact with those people.’
‘But we’re also taking a precautionary step by putting this border restriction in place until we know exactly what’s going on in Melbourne.’
People from Greater Melbourne who travel to South Australia must get tested on day one, five, and twelve and isolate for 14 days. Regional Victoria is not affected.
A cluster at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport (pictured) has remained at eight cases on Thursday, Victoria’s Department of Health confirmed
Cleaners wearing full PPE disinfect the Holiday Inn Hotel on February 10, 2021 at Melbourne Airport
Victorian health authorities have issued an urgent alert for two Melbourne banks where the infected returned traveller visited after being released from isolation on Sunday.
Anyone who attended the Commonwealth Bank in Glen Waverley from 1:30pm to 2:45pm on Tuesday, February 9, or the HSBC Bank in Glen Waverley from 2:15pm to 3:30pm on the same day, is considered a close contact and must self isolate and get tested immediately.
There may also be more exposure sites linked to the previous resident, DHHS has warned.
Genomic testing has confirmed the latest outbreak at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport is the highly contagious UK strain of the virus.
Also on Thursday morning, an urgent health warning was issued to shoppers after a Covid-infected person wandered around a Melbourne mall.
The infected person is understood to have walked around Sunbury Square Shopping Centre on Friday February 5 between 3.40pm and 4.30pm.
They are asking anyone who was also there at that time to urgently get tested and isolate until receiving negative result.
‘Individuals who attended the shopping centre outside of this timeframe are not considered at risk, but should monitor for symptoms and immediately present for testing if they become unwell,’ DHHS said.
In response to the outbreak returned travellers and 135 staff were forced to evacuate the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport.
Guests began the transfer process to the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne from 8am on Wednesday ‘to quarantine an extended number of days’.
An urgent health warning has been issued to shoppers after a Covid-infected person wandered around Sunbury Square Shopping Centre
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