Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[Pushka]

The man with the nebuliser in Melbourne is owed one very significant apology. He actually developed Covid from within the Quarantine Hotel and was not the cause of the spread in any way.

Live Breaking News: NSW coronavirus venues on alert after Sydney COVID-19 case

<p>More NSW venues have been added to Sydney's growing list and suburbs have been put on high alert.</p> <p> </p>

www.news.com.au

"The Holiday Inn COVID-19 outbreak that sparked Victoria's third lockdown last year was allegedly caused by the "lengthy swabbing" of an unmasked woman in an open doorway, The Australian reports.

Health officials at the time declared the outbreak in the hotel had been caused by the use of a nebuliser in a room.
But according to the COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria Infection Prevention and Control, obtained by the publication, the virus, “previously contained” in the woman’s room, was blown down the corridor by airconditioning before “pooling outside the door” of the room where the man with the nebuliser was staying with his partner and infant."

 

[33kft]

The man with the nebuliser in Melbourne is owed one very significant apology. He actually developed Covid from within the Quarantine Hotel and was not the cause of the spread in any way.

I agree with the sentiment although I am not sure this is correct. If you read the blog post that the statement is from, it goes on to explain that:

Within days, the trio all had the virus, with the nebuliser aiding transmission of the virus in the room and "pushing it back into the corridor, infecting food and beverage workers delivering meals to residents' doors".

 

[Pushka]

I agree with the sentiment although I am not sure this is correct. If you read the blog post that the statement is from, it goes on to explain that:

Within days, the trio all had the virus, with the nebuliser aiding transmission of the virus in the room and "pushing it back into the corridor, infecting food and beverage workers delivering meals to residents' doors".

Well, yes, thats true but he didn't have Covid before Quarantine gave it to him so to me that means he's not the cause of the outbreak. Given that eventually 3 people in that room caught Covid from the corridor leakage then the viral load would have been significant. Add in every other Covid positive person on that floor and the corridor was toxic. Regardless of the nebuliser.

 

[33kft]

Well, he didn't have Covid before Quarantine gave it to him so to me that means he's not the cause of any issue. If he didn't catch Covid at the hotel the nebuliser is irrelevant.

Huh? If the reporting is accurate, he caught COVID off another person when he went outside the room to pick up food, and spread it to 2 more in the room plus 2 more outside the room via use of the nebuliser. Had he come into HQ with the virus, the same would have happened.

It's both embarrassing and unacceptable that he caught COVID in a quarantine hotel.

However he is in that quarantine hotel due to the potential that he has COVID, and the equipment that he used then spread it to 4 more people. I can understand the argument that it was both not his fault that he caught it off someone else who expelled the virus into the hallway during a swab, and that he may well have had no knowledge that the nebuliser was not allowed in HQ, but the exact story you are linking to expressly states that the spread to other individuals was aided by the nebuliser, so to say its use is irrelevant is too long of a bow to draw for me.

 

[Lynda2475]

Infection control manager stood down amid damning hotel quarantine reports

A Victorian public servant in charge of infection control in hotel quarantine has been stood down after reports emerged they had refused a COVID-19 test and not replaced their face mask.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Pushka]

Huh? If the reporting is accurate, he caught COVID off another person when he went outside the room to pick up food, and spread it to 2 more in the room plus 2 more outside the room via use of the nebuliser. Had he come into HQ with the virus, the same would have happened.

It's both embarrassing and unacceptable that he caught COVID in a quarantine hotel.

However he is in that quarantine hotel due to the potential that he has COVID, and the equipment that he used then spread it to 4 more people. I can understand the argument that it was both not his fault that he caught it off someone else who expelled the virus into the hallway during a swab, and that he may well have had no knowledge that the nebuliser was not allowed in HQ, but the exact story you are linking to expressly states that the spread to other individuals was aided by the nebuliser, so to say its use is irrelevant is too long of a bow to draw for me.

But what we don't know (or maybe I missed it) is whether he had to use the nebuliser before he caught Covid. And we also don't know if it was he who caught it first because different people convert it at different times after exposure.

 

[dajop]

I noticed the first 5 articles in the Australian online edition relate to Victoria Governmwnt handling of hotel quarantine. Could the timing of these 5 articles just be a coincidence? Definitely a nice circuit breaker to take attention away from the India restrictions.

But if in any doubt as to why the Victoria government are not taking their fair share of foreign arrivals and are being extremely cautious about raising caps, the scrutiny they get is (it seems) more intense and I haven’t yet seen the same intense scrutiny on the hotel quarantine escapes in the other jurisdictions. The old stories keep on coming up again and again in certain parts of the media.

 

[33kft]

the scrutiny they get is (it seems) more intense

I think it's justified to some extent. Many states (QLD, WA, VIC and NSW at very least) have had HQ mishaps, but it was VIC's mishaps that led to 4 months of lockdowns and ~800 deaths.

 

[Lynda2475]

I think the media pressure remains on Vic precisely because they aren't taking their fair share of arrivals, a history of not owning stuff ups and lack of transparency in reporting compared with other states. There are a few articles this morning because of new leak re real cause of the last HQ issue.

But Vic certainly isnt the top story in the main sites that you can read without a subscription. Focus of Covid coverage in SMH, ABC and News this morning is India - the situation there, the response from Australia and legal challenges.

Australia’s quarantine hotel rooms empty as India flight ban continues

Many of Australia’s quarantine facilities for returned overseas travellers are far from full as the Indian flight ban continues to leave thousands stranded.

www.smh.com.au

From the above article:

Howard Springs:

Figures obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age show the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs quarantine facility, which prompted the ban last month after all but one of 48 infected residents had travelled from India, is only at roughly a third of its capacity.

The Howard Springs facility has two parts: the centre for national resilience for repatriated Australians, and a second place for other arrivals including returned defence personnel and international ship crew.

That centre, which has space for 850 return travellers and will expand to accommodate 2000 people by the end of the month, is housing just over 250 repatriated travellers. Another roughly 150 people were also completing quarantine at the other part of the facility.

NSW:

NSW’s Special Health Accommodation, which houses positive cases and returned travellers with other complex health needs separately to the police-managed hotel quarantine system, has 753 bedrooms across 639 apartments.

On Tuesday, there were 546 patients in the accommodation, leaving more than 100 apartments vacant.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said NSW Police consider 5000 or, at most, 5500 people in the overall hotel quarantine system at any one time to be a safe amount.

The state has a cap of 3010 international arrivals a week and there have been 47 overseas cases in the past seven days.

Vic:

Victoria’s hotel quarantine system is running close to its capacity. It has a weekly cap of 1000 arrivals and the state has about 1800 people staying in its quarantine and health hotels. <---- this is 30% of NSW, the safe operating point for Vic should be at least 90% of the NSW total based on population.

QLD:

Queensland is using just over half of the quarantine hotels it had in operation in August, with about 1200 rooms occupied across 16 hotels. COVID-19 patients are transferred to hospital. <---- again seriously low given population.

SA

In South Australia, roughly a fifth of the more than 1000 rooms in Adelaide’s medi-hotels, which house all returned travellers, are vacant. There are 32 cases in the Tom’s Court Hotel, which only houses COVID-19 patients.

Last month, when there were 30 cases in the hotel, the state’s chief health officer said there were 12 remaining rooms. However, capacity depends on whether cases are travelling solo or as families.

WA:

A spokesperson for the State Health Incident Coordination Centre said there were 1895 people in quarantine in Western Australia as of Monday afternoon, of which 26 have tested positive.

 

[dajop]

I think it's justified to some extent. Many states (QLD, WA, VIC and NSW at very least) have had HQ mishaps, but it was VIC's mishaps that led to 4 months of lockdowns and ~800 deaths

I don’t think it’s not justified, but they seem to be just focusing on the escape - no one seems to be looking into why did the Victoria HQ escapes go somewhere but the others states not? I think the misjudgment about escape, delays in implementing effective control measures and substandard contact tracing were also major contributing factors. But they are more difficult to create headlines about. Anything related to HQ lends itself much more to clickbait.

 

[bcworld]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1389779099640471555

 

[jase05]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1389778767606734848

 

[Lynda2475]

So which state will close to NSW first?

This guys is from the east but seems to spend a lot of time in south west - wondering if shopping for a BBQ or some sort of supplier/delivery guy.


From ABC Blog:

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the state has recorded one new case of locally acquired COVID-19.

The man, who is in his 50s, was tested yesterday and his results came back today.

He had not been overseas, or worked in Sydney's hotel quarantine system.

Authorities believe the man had been infectious since Friday.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said authorities were keeping an open mind while working to find the source of the infection.

She said authorities hoped genome sequencing would identify the source of the infection, that could be from interstate.

The man did "everything right" according to the Premier and his direct contacts are in isolation and undertaking COVID-19 tests.


From SMH:

The man had a high viral load, suggesting he was potentially highly infectious, which was cause for concern.

NSW Health will be testing the man’s close contacts in an effort to identify undetected chains of transmission.

“In this case, we’re really interested in how this person acquired the infection to understand the broader risk in the community,” Dr Chant said.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said even people in eastern Sydney who had received one or two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine still must come forward for testing if they develop symptoms.

 

[SydneySwan]

So which state will close to NSW first?

It is pretty sad after all this time that we even ask this question.

 

[Saab34]

He had not been overseas, or worked in Sydney's hotel quarantine system.

That’s the worst bit. Does not work in a high risk or have been near a high risk industry either.

Surely connected back to HQ.

 

[Lynda2475]

Surely connected back to HQ

Yes but whose HQ? They are checking genome sequencing against recent interstate cases - recall that in both recent WA cases the infected people were in the community for a week before being identified, someone could have returned and not been truthful about where they were in WA.

 

[drron]

I noticed the first 5 articles in the Australian online edition relate to Victoria Governmwnt handling of hotel quarantine. Could the timing of these 5 articles just be a coincidence? Definitely a nice circuit breaker to take attention away from the India restrictions.

But if in any doubt as to why the Victoria government are not taking their fair share of foreign arrivals and are being extremely cautious about raising caps, the scrutiny they get is (it seems) more intense and I haven’t yet seen the same intense scrutiny on the hotel quarantine escapes in the other jurisdictions. The old stories keep on coming up again and again in certain parts of the media.

Though News has been quite negative on the India ban.Why I even caught the ABC showing a little bit of Andrew Bolt really lashing the PM on the issue.

Two other possible reasons.first more costings came out of the legal representation of Ministers and Public servants before the HQ Inquiry.

Then reported in Fairfax another problem with the Private security firm.

Hotel quarantine security firm sues Victorian government for $10 million in unpaid invoices

A security company involved in Melbourne’s deadly hotel quarantine outbreak is suing the Victorian government, claiming they were not paid almost $10 million for guarding a dozen hotels during the pandemic.

www.theage.com.au

 

[lovetravellingoz]

That’s the worst bit. Does not work in a high risk or have been near a high risk industry either.

Surely connected back to HQ.

There are a number of possible sources of which HQ is but one. While HQ is the most likely it may not be the source.

You might recall the very recent NZ case where an airport cleaner tested positive, and was linked gnomically to a passenger. (see below). So it could have come via airport workers or border forces.


The Avalon Cluster was never linked, but gnomically it is known it came from the USA and some believe that Flight Crew will have been the source.

Then there are possibilities of it coming via sea. ie Last week I watched the Pilot Boats from Port Phillip go out to the arriving freighters. Apart from Cruise Ships I can't recall other marine breaches in Australia, but NZ is likely to have had at least one such breach.


ie

Warning issued for Victorian arrivals after Auckland COVID case

The Department of Health has issued an alert after more than 50 days without a new local case.

7news.com.au

and:

April airport case update​

The border worker reported yesterday has 25 close contacts identified to date – the seven who have been tested so far have returned negative results. One is being followed up today, and the remainder of those identified are not yet due for testing - this is because we test close contacts on day 5 after they have potentially been exposed to the virus for the best chance of detecting any infection that may be incubating. All close contacts are self-isolating.

Of those, 17 are workplace contacts. This number will likely increase – the person worked three shifts during their infectious period with a number of colleagues, and officials are working to determine who is a close contact from their interactions.

Last night we received the results from whole genome sequencing of this person’s PCR test.

The whole genome sequence was indistinguishable from that of a person who arrived in the country on 10 April from Ethiopia via the United Arab Emirates. The genome of both these cases is the B.1.1.7 – which is the variant first identified in the UK.

We have confirmed the worker announced as a case yesterday did clean the same plane the person from Ethiopia arrived on. While there is a clear link to a known case of COVID-19, we are still investigating how the cleaner was infected.

 

[dajop]

Yes but whose HQ?

it will either be Australia’s hotel quarantine or New Zealand’s.

 

[Lynda2475]

All of the security guards and staff dealing with HQ wearing these N95 masks would need to be clean shaven for them to be properly effective. I would imagine that would be problematic in itself.
I don’t know what the solution is to improved safety in HQ but issuing N95 to a bunch of blokes with beards certainly isn’t one of them.

I don't see an issue with having a requirement to be clean shaven if it is a matter of OH&S compliance so that a mask fits properly. Surgical masks also gape when someone is bearded so not really keeping aerosols in or out. Other occupations require people to keep their nails short, i see no real difference here.

I wore an N95 for just over 4 hours last night at theatre and was perfectly comfortable, whereas i personally find it near impossible to breathe with a surgical mask on and wouldnt have been able to last the distance if I had to wear one. I use a cloth masks when N95 not warranted. Im impressed by any medical worker who manages to wear a surgical mask for any length of time as they are really hot and its really hard to breathe.