The outbreak of COVID-19 in Sydney is unlikely to become a "superspreading event" but the "missing link" remains a worry, an expert says.
Key points:
- Mary-Louise McLaws doesn't see the outbreak being 'like the northern beaches'
- NSW introduced new COVID restrictions until Monday morning
- It's still unknown how a Sydney man contracted the virus
The warning comes as Premier Gladys Berejiklian this morning said she was "very pleased" with today's numbers.
"Obviously we give our updates at 11:00am but suffice to say I'm very pleased where things are at I'm pleased with the way the community has responded ... but there is at least one person or possibly more who have had the virus and have been out in the community that we don't know about," Ms Berejiklian told Channel Seven.
Contact tracers are scrambling to identify how a man in his 50s from Sydney's eastern suburbs contracted COVID-19.
Genomic sequencing linked the man's infection to a returned overseas traveller from the US who was quarantining at the Park Royal Hotel at Darling Harbour.
However, lab technicians are still trying to find the "missing link" between the traveller and the Sydney man.
The man's wife was yesterday confirmed to have tested positive to COVID-19.
University of NSW epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws said in the first instance, contact tracers would be relying on QR codes to retrace the man's steps to identify if there was a person or people who could have passed it onto him.
AAP Image: Mick Tsikas
)Secondly, health authorities will be retesting hotel staff and drivers where the overseas traveller was quarantining in case any of them had an initial false-negative result.
"They may have tested negative the first couple of times or the last time ...so that may explain why they haven't made the connection yet," Professor McLaws said.
Professor McLaws said another line of investigation would likely focus on a passenger who boarded the same flight as the returned traveller from the US and was given an exemption to quarantine at home, instead of a hotel.
"Could this particular person have visited somebody or could the person under home quarantine, not been under home quarantine and not used their QR codes?"
'I don't see it being like the northern beaches'
While the "missing link" is worrying, Professor McLaws doesn't believe it will become "a superspreading event".
"I don't see it being like the northern beaches," she said.
"But don't be surprised if there's a few more cases given this person is highly mobile and that mobility increased the likelihood of spread."
The northern beaches was locked down over Christmas with 151 cases linked to the cluster.
Professor McLaws said there was an increased risk around Mother's Day, as family gatherings are likely.
"The probabilities collide to have a potential increase in case numbers because of Mother's Day," she said.
Yesterday NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced new restrictions, including restricting household gatherings to 20 visitors and making masks compulsory in indoor areas across Greater Sydney.
Professor McLaws said the government's response was proportionate to the risk.
"Until we get a high level of vaccination in the community, we really do need to be constantly wearing our mask on public transport," she said.
Ms Berejiklian encouraged people to carry on with their Mother's Day plans and apply "common sense".
"It is business as usual for all of us over the next three days in Greater Sydney," she said.
Epidemiologist Angela Webster from the University of Sydney said she wasn't surprised that the new coronavirus case was linked to hotel quarantine.
"This virus is so infectious it would always leak out," she said.
"Hotels that we're using are set up to have good comfortable facilities... but they're not health facilities and we have emerging evidence from around the world airborne and aerosol transmission may be more important."
Professor Webster conceded while hotel quarantine may not be perfect, there is no alternative.
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2021-05-06 19:08:43Z
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