South African COVID-19 strain may have spread in Sydney hotel quarantine
Another potential COVID-19 spread in hotel quarantine is under investigation by NSW Health.
The three returned travellers, two of whom are related, all tested positive to the South African strain of the virus.
All three people arrived in Australia on April 3 on the same flight, and were quarantined next door to each other at the Mercure Hotel on George Street in the Sydney CBD.
The two family members were in connecting rooms on the hotel’s 10th floor, while the third person was in an adjacent room.
They all tested negative for their day two swabs in quarantine.
The family members tested positive on days seven and 10 of their stay, while the third person tested positive on day 12.
They have all been transferred to health accommodation.
NSW Health is contacting returned travellers who were on the same floor of the hotel from April 7-12.
They are asked to get tested and self-isolate until 14 days from the day they left quarantine at the Mercure.
Staff who worked on the floor are also being tested and self-isolating.
It comes after NSW Health confirmed the spread of COVID-19 between thre family members while in quarantine in another Sydney hotel.
The three cases are all members of the one family who had been staying on the 12th floor of the Adina Apartments Hotel at Town Hall.
