Health officials in South Australia are investigating a possible COVID-19 violation at a medical hotel and an unknown regional location in the SA where three Sydney movers stopped en route to McLaren Vale last week.
Key points:
- SA Prime Minister Steven Marshall said authorities were working on a list of 60 people
- He said some of them stayed in their cars and were at low risk
- The three movers may have made another stop at Tailem Bend
Two of the men tested positive for COVID-19, and at least one was infectious in the state.
They have already identified two exhibition sites, the Shell gas station in Tailem Bend and the adjoining Coolabah Tree Cafe, where the men stopped on their way back to Sydney.
Authorities believe the men also stopped somewhere on the way to the state, and although they are cooperating with authorities, they are struggling to determine exactly where he was.
Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Emily Kirkpatrick said it was “probably a gas station” where they refueled, but could also have been a roadhouse.
“We have [police] visit a number of places to collect CCTV footage, it takes a long time to get there so we are definitely not withholding information – we do not yet have a confirmed place where these people have stopped ”, a she declared.
ABC News
)The stop was in a regional area, she said – not to Tailem Bend or McLaren Vale – but there had been difficulty identifying it due to a language barrier with the movers.
“We are aware that this shutdown has occurred,” said Dr Kirkpatrick.
“Now it is a question of trying to determine exactly what location it is and whether these people have had any contact with the community.”
Possible transfer to medi-hotel
SA Health also reported a possible case of local transmission at a medi-hotel in Adelaide.
A man in his forties tested positive on his 13th day test.
Authorities believe he may have caught the virus from a man remaining across the hall, who tested positive but was considered an old, non-infectious case.
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)SA Health said he is now reassessing the man and believes he may have an active infection.
“There is a potential for intra-hospital transmission here,” said Dr Kirkpatrick.
The pair were staying on the 19th floor of the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Adelaide’s CBD.
Five other people upstairs have been ordered to do an additional 14 days of quarantine.
The two infected men were transferred to Tom’s Court Hotel for coronavirus-positive patients.
SA Health is trying to contact 14 people who stayed at the hotel at the same time as the now active case, including 10 who left the highway.
Separately, a woman in her 40s tested positive after returning from overseas while in a medical hotel.
Good results at Tailem Bend
In total, 90 people connected to Tailem Bend sites are now in quarantine.
Two people who worked at the Tailem Bend gas station when the movers visited tested negative on their first test.
“Everyone who has potentially come into contact with this infected person at the Shell gas station in Tailem Bend has now been tested, returned a negative test, as have all of their family contacts,” Prime Minister Steven Marshall said this morning.
“It’s a sigh of relief, but we know that the incubation period for this disease can be 14 days, in fact sometimes it can be even longer, so we’re not out of the woods yet. make sure we can do everything we can to hunt down all possible leads. “
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)Dr Kirkpatrick said SA Health is meeting this afternoon to decide to reintroduce testing requirements for visitors to Melbourne after seven new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Victoria today, four of which were detected in Ariele apartments , which the movers attended.
Besides the two Tailem Bend locations, NSW Health said the only exhibition site linked to the trio’s return trip was Hungry Jack’s restaurant on Hume Highway in Marulan, Southern Tablelands.
They went there on Saturday July 10 from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
No case has been linked to the location.
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