Australian diplomat sparks WA COVID-19 fears after positive test
WA Health is monitoring staff at a Perth apartment complex and a driver after a visiting senior government official tested positive to COVID-19.
WA Premier Mark McGown said an Australian diplomatic official arrived in the state on 29 September with his wife and young child from Serbia via Dubai.
“Both the diplomat in his 30s and his partner are fully vaccinated,” he told a media conference today.
“And the family was approved to enter Australia and Western Australia for approved travel for a senior government official.”
He said the family was directed to self quarantine at an apartment in North Bridge, in Perth.
The official returned a positive COVID-19 test yesterday. He and his family have been transferred to a WA Health quarantine hotel by ambulance.
WA Health contact tracing teams have identified four potential close contacts, employees at the apartment complex and the driver who picked up the family.
All four are in self quarantine where they will remain in 14 days. One negative test has been returned.
Mr McGowan used the media conference to provide a COVID-19 update on crew members on an oil tanker docked in Freemantle.
He said said 12 crew members from the Stolt Sakura returned positive results to COVID-19.
Two crew members, a man in his 30s and a man in his 60s, were wheeled off the ship yesterday and transferred to Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth.
A third crew member was transferred off the ship and to hospital overnight.
Mr McGowan said two of the crew members are in ICU. The third is in a stable condition.
He said it is expected all other crew members, believed to a total of 22, will remain in isolation on the ship.
Mr McGowan said the COVID-19 situation was “extremely low public health risk” and that “all precautions are being taken”.
He said the cases show “just how easily the COVID-19 virus can come into our community.
He said vaccination is the only long term solution to the pandemic.
