South Australian health authorities are investigating a possible medi-hotel COVID-19 breach and an unknown regional SA location where three removalists from Sydney stopped on their way to McLaren Vale last week.
Key points:
- SA Premier Steven Marshall said authorities were working through a list of 60 people
- He said some of them had stayed in their cars and were low risk
- The three removalists may have made another stop in Tailem Bend
Two of the men have tested positive to COVID-19, and at least one was infectious while in the state.
They have already identified two exposure sites, the Shell service station in Tailem Bend and the adjoining Coolabah Tree Cafe, where the men stopped on their way back to Sydney.
Authorities believe the men also stopped somewhere on their way into the state, and while they are cooperating with authorities, they are having trouble pinpointing exactly where it was.
Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Emily Kirkpatrick said it was “likely to be a petrol station” where they refuelled but it could also have been a roadhouse.
“We do have [police] visiting a number of locations to gather CCTV footage, this does take time to step through there, so we are certainly not withholding information — we do not have a confirmed location yet of where these individuals stopped,” she said.
The stop was in a regional area, she said — not in Tailem Bend or McLaren Vale — but there had been difficulty identifying it because of a language barrier with the removalists.
“We’re aware that this stop did occur,” Dr Kirkpatrick said.
“It’s now just trying to step through exactly which location this was and whether these individuals had any contact with the community.”
Possible transmission in medi-hotel
SA Health has also flagged a possible case of local transmission in an Adelaide medi-hotel.
A man in his 40s tested positive on his day 13 test.
Authorities believe he may have caught the virus from a man staying across the hallway, who tested positive but was believed to be an old, non-infectious case.
SA Health said it was now reassessing the man and believe he may have an active infection.
“There is potential here for intra-medi-hotel transmission,” Dr Kirkpatrick said.
Both men were staying on the 19th floor of the Stamford Plaza hotel in Adelaide’s CBD.
Five other people on the floor have been ordered to do an additional 14 days of quarantine.
The two infected men have been moved to the Tom’s Court Hotel for positive coronavirus patients.
SA Health is trying to contact 14 people who stayed at the hotel at the same time as the case that is now believed to be active, including 10 who have left interstate.
Separately, a woman in her 40s tested positive after returning from overseas while in a medi-hotel.
Good results in Tailem Bend
A total of 90 people connected to the Tailem Bend sites are now in quarantine.
Two people who were working at the Tailem Bend service station while the removalists visited tested negative on their first test.
“Every single person who potentially came into contact with this infected person at the Shell service station at Tailem Bend has now been tested, returned a negative test, and so have all of their household contacts,” Premier Steven Marshall said this morning.
“It’s a sigh of relief, but we know the incubation period for this disease can be 14 days, in fact sometimes it can be even longer, so we’re not out of the woods yet. We’ve got to make sure we can do everything we can to chase down every single possible lead.”
Dr Kirkpatrick said SA Health was meeting this afternoon to decide whether to reintroduce testing requirements on visitors from Melbourne after seven new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Victoria today, including four detected at the Ariele apartments, which were attended by the removalists.
Apart from the two sites in Tailem Bend, NSW Health said the only exposure site linked to the trio’s return journey was the Hungry Jack’s restaurant on the Hume Highway at Marulan, in the Southern Tablelands.
They went there on Saturday, July 10, from 5:00pm–5:30pm.
No cases have been linked to the venue.
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