Premier Gladys Berejiklian has rejected suggestions a security guard, who caught coronavirus while working in Sydney hotel quarantine, should have been restricted to that single job.
“We have to accept now there are jobs in the community that are higher risk and that‘s a reality. But you also can’t say to someone if you work in a particular environment, you can’t go to a restaurant, you can’t go shopping,” the NSW Premier said.
“All those things, whether you‘re working or going to other venues that is a risk.
“That is why the message to everybody: No matter where you work, no matter what you do. If you have a symptom, get tested. If you‘re asked to stay home for 14 days, stay home for 14 days.”
She said regardless of your job – whether you‘re a police officer, healthcare worker or security guard – “whilst we live with COVID all of us have to be on guard”.
“We have to accept there are high-risk activities. All of us are – any time any of us leave the house, especially if we live in south-west and western Sydney, we have to assume we are being exposed to the virus,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“And we have to make that assumption every day. Which is why I‘m asking people and urging people in south-western and western Sydney to get tested and come forward.
“Because we know the chances of the disease not circulating in the area is zero.”
Public health officials are scrambling to determine how a Sydney hotel security guard contracted COVID-19 from a quarantined guest, and if he spread it across the city.
The contractor worked across several locations while infectious, including Sydney Markets at Flemington and Parramatta Local Court in the city’s west.
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No new cases of the virus has emerged in those spots, but authorities are now racing to keep Sydney from entering a Melbourne-like scenario.
OFFICIALS RACING TO TRACE GUARD
Genomic testing linked the man’s strain of COVID-19 to that of a traveller who had returned from the United States and placed into mandatory quarantine at the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel in Circular Quay on July 31.
The traveller was tested for the virus on August 2 and August 4, returning a positive result on the latter date. They were then transferred to an alternative hotel on August 5.
The security guard developed symptoms from August 11 and tested positive for the virus late on August 15.
The guard worked at the Sydney Harbour Marriott on August 3, 4, 7 and 8. He developed symptoms on August 11 and was diagnosed on August 15.
On August 8 the guard worked at Bankstown Central, and Flemington Markets the following day. On August 11 and 12 he worked at Parramatta Local Court.
Officials said the guard’s strain of infection, which appeared different to any other in NSW, suggested he likely acquired it from the traveller who returned from the US.
“Our detective work has indicated the most likely source of infection was the acquisition at the Marriott Hotel, but the exact nature of how that infection could have been acquired is a matter under intense investigation as we speak,” chief health officer Kerry Chant said.
She noted that urgent testing had revealed the exact strain of the virus the guard had contracted.
“What that‘s identified is that it’s quite a different sequence to the virus associated with the Crossroads and other clusters that New South Wales is experiencing which is related back to the Melbourne virus,” she said.
“This is a different virus and matches this person who was quarantined at the hotel.”
Close contacts of the guard have been put into self-isolation.
‘NO SUGGESTION OF BREACHES’
While authorities are still working to determine exactly how the guard became infected, Dr Chant stressed there has been “no suggestion of breaches”.
“The guard has been interviewed and there has been no suggestion of breaches,” she said. “It’s very important with these types of investigations that we keep an open mind.
“Obviously we’re keen to understand how that could have occurred so we can learn from that, but it’s been a very prompt response.”
But NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker said the new developments were “no doubt concerning”.
“NSW Police are working strongly with NSW Health, in terms of the investigation … we are currently doing that as we speak at the Marriott Hotel, in terms of viewing CCTV footage, conducting various interviews and having conversations with those that are involved in this matter,” she said.
The matter is especially concerning given events in Melbourne, where an ongoing inquiry into hotel quarantine breaches found that up to 99 per cent of cases diagnosed in May were linked to outbreaks at the Rydges Hotel and Stamford Plaza Hotel.
Unlike Victoria, which hired private security guards for its botched program, NSW managed its hotel quarantine outbreaks using NSW police, Australian Defence Force officials and several security contracting firms.
The security guard’s diagnosis marks the first case of its kind since these arrangements were first put in place on March 29.
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2020-08-19 02:26:15Z
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