COVID viral guests transferred out of Sydney hotel

NSW Health is expected to issue a COVID alert after a locally transmitted case was recorded in eastern Sydney.

Authorities have reported contact tracers are now trying to track down the source of the infection.

The department is also investigating how three COVID cases in two adjacent rooms in hotel quarantine have managed to return identical viral sequencing results. They were all staying at Sydney’s Radisson Blu quarantine hotel on the fourth floor. They all arrived in Sydney on 1 June on the same flight from Doha.

According to NSW Health, Genomic sequencing has shown all three cases have identical viral sequences of the Alpha strain (B.1.1.7).

They have all been transferred from Radisson Blu to Special Health Accommodation.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters, “At this stage we still don’t know if it happened on the plane, transporting from the plane to the accommodation, at the accommodation or whether it was just a coincidence.”

Any return travellers or staff who were on that floor between 1 June 1 and 5 June have been asked to get tested and isolate until their results are in. 

There is no evidence of further transmission according to NSW Health.

16th June 2021