Man tests positive to COVID-19 after leaving WA hotel quarantine
Health authorities are contacting scores of people in Western Australia after a man tested positive to COVID-19 after being released from the state’s quarantine hotels.
WA Chief Health Officer Dr Andrew Robertson confirmed the case in a press conference this afternoon, saying it was not a virus variant of concern.
Dr Robertson said the man left his hotel on Friday and visited a number of venues before he returned to quarantine yesterday as a precaution.
Exposure sites have been listed and contact tracing is underway.
“This case had done 14 days in a hotel and then had been cleared in accordance with the national guidelines on day 10,” Dr Robertson said.
He said the man was allowed out of the hotel yesterday and was tested in line with the requirements of his maritime industry workplace. He returned a positive test.
“Getting positive tests on PCR is not unusual,” Dr Robertson said.
“We often get people who are chronic shedders, but the test result was more moderately positive than we would anticipate. So, as a precaution, we have put him back into one of the quarantine hotels and have taken further tests.
“His test today was weaker which is more in line with what we would expect with somebody who was a chronic shedder and we believe that he is a non-infectious chronic shedder”.
Dr Robertson said WA health authorities believe the man shedded viral particles and not the virus.
“We do not believe he is of major concern to the community,” he said.
“Having said that, we have taken a very precautionary approach. He only got out at lunchtime yesterday, he visited a couple of places. He visited a pharmacy, he visited a telephone store, and he had a meal at a hotel.”
Dr Robertson said he believed only a small number of people potentially came in contact with the man.
“There may have been 12 people at the restaurant and a similar number in the store,” he said.
“We’re just asking (them) to get tested in the next day or so. We are not requiring them to quarantine. Obviously, if they develop symptoms then we would ask them to isolate.
“Just to reinforce, we do not believe he is infectious.”
