Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[RAM]

Why is our 'Platinum' or 'Diamond' contact tracing system in NSW deliberately witholding the office location where the security guard worked for 5 days while possiby infectious?

For some reason the State Govt decided to suppress the location of the coffee shop where he got his morning coffee before going to his 'office job mostly' from last Monday through to Friday until late yesterday. That revelation that has appeared this morning could have seen people go get tested yesterday & not turn up for work in the area surrounding the Hurstville Private Hospital this morning.

“The advice we have had is generally that person resides in an office-based setting, but we are checking with various key cards and other things to track the movements and identify the potential.”

Could it be the Hurstville Private Hospital perhaps? 'Generally' - until he gets up and delivers items around the building perhaps? Why the secrecy?

Why the delays? Five days of potential exposure sitting in the same 'office-based' setting as the infected security guard would seem like a higher risk than 45 minutes on a near empty train heading into the city against the flow of workers heading home?

Let's hope this is just incompetence by the State Govt and is not driven by something else like at the start of the Northern Beaches outbreak.

Then they did not reveal a State Govt office in MLC had 4 of the first 6 detected cases & NEVER listed the MLC Centre nor its food court as a location until some time later when non-Govt office related cases listed it as a location they had visited.

Compare this with what Qld has been doing for their case from one day earlier.

NSW is not making it easy for the other States?

 

[hydrabyss]

Not only did he have a full time office job, but supposedly worked at more than one of the quarantine hotels. Looks like we’re doomed to keep repeating history.

Up until yesterday I was happy with NSW's Governments approach so far but now when I hear this I feel all states are as bad as each other and it may have been sheer luck that has got us this far.

 

[Lynda2475]

I was offline most of yesterday and only caught up on updates this morning, im really angry at the selfish decisions of this security guard, working in an office and at HQ, he cant have been honest with his office employer.

Ive been back in office full time since February, we have to check in via QR code and comply with NSW policy by answering 2 health questions every day we come in. One relates to symptoms and the other is if you have been to any venue or workplace where a covid positive person has been in last 14 days. Answer yes to either and you must stay home for 14 days.

So if security guard has been working at iso hotel/s (it wasnt the medi hotels as they police run) he couldnt have honestly resonded No to the covid venue question at his office job, as arrivals testing positive have been transferred from iso hotels to medi hotels almost every day, meaning no way its been more than 14 days since a positive person was at the hotel.

Every office job i have had you have to declare if you work more than one job, to ensure no conflict of interest and get ok of your primary employer. Did the security guard lie re second job or on health questions? Or is his office employer not doing the daily health survey for onsite employees per nsw health guidelines? Legal action needed on this one.

What is more worrying is frequent attendance at a coffee shop attached to a hospital. Is his main office job at a hospital? How selfish to work in a venue with vulnerable people and then also do work in high covid risk environment.

 

[MelMel]

I was offline most of yesterday and only caught up on updates this morning, im really angry at the selfish decisions of this security guard, working in an office and at HQ, he cant have been honest with his office employer.

Ive been back in office full time since February, we have to check in via QR code and comply with NSW policy by answering 2 health questions every day we come in. One relates to symptoms and the other is if you have been to any venue or workplace where a covid positive person has been in last 14 days. Answer yes to either and you must stay home for 14 days.

So if security guard has been working at iso hotel/s (it wasnt the medi hotels as they police run) he couldnt have honestly resonded No to the covid venue question at his office job, as arrivals testing positive have been transferred from iso hotels to medi hotels almost every day, meaning no way its been more than 14 days since a positive person was at the hotel.

Every office job i have had you have to declare if you work more than one job, to ensure no conflict of interest and get ok of your primary employer. Did the security guard lie re second job or on health questions? Or is his office employer not doing the daily health survey for onsite employees per nsw health guidelines? Legal action needed on this one.

What is more worrying is frequent attendance at a coffee shop attached to a hospital. Is his main office job at a hospital? How selfish to work in a venue with vulnerable people and then also do work in high covid risk environment.

I’m not familiar with the area at all but looking at Google maps it appears to be a very residential area with no office buildings around. The hospital website says the coffee shop is inside the main entrance. I can’t imagine many people would walk through a hospital to get their morning coffee unless they worked there?

 

[jakeseven7]

There is no real solution to these hotel quarantine breaches they are going to keep on happening again and again and again as long as the program exists.

The only thing we can do is get everyone vaccinated ASAP and pull out all stops to make this happen faster.

That being said this particular breach is especially irritating given an individual has made active poor decisions (/was allowed to - as that hasn't been determined yet) that have potential to cause a lot more issues than if they didn't.... sigh....

But what can we really do? Lock all the HQ staff in the HQ with the paying returned travellers?

-----


NSW’s 55-day streak of no COVID-19 cases came to an abrupt end on Sunday after a security guard who worked across two quarantine hotels tested positive for the virus.

The 47-year-old security guard worked at the Sofitel Wentworth in the Sydney CBD, the Mantra Sydney Central in Haymarket, and also at an office, according to NSW health authorities.

Victoria records no new coronavirus cases as authorities contact Sydney travellers

Victoria has hit 17 days with no new coronavirus cases, but a hotel quarantine leak in Sydney has prompted warnings for residents returning from interstate.

www.theage.com.au

 

[MelMel]

How many jobs does this person have??

 

[Pushka]

How many jobs does this person have??

Maybe he was like the person in our apartment complex who sorts rubbish from recycling etc and cleans and vacuums the common areas. I’m always very polite with ours but very unlikely to catch anything from him.

 

[nutwood]

Received a text from SA Health this afternoon requesting me to fill in an online form as "I may have travelled from NSW...".
Not sure where they got that from as I arrived from Melbourne, ex Tasmania and that was carefully recorded when I arrived.
Perhaps they're being ultra cautious and contacting all arrivals, regardless?

 

[Anna]

Perhaps they're being ultra cautious and contacting all arrivals

I arrived around 6.45pm yesterday from Mel and they haven't contacted me. But they did ask me outright on arrival whether I had been in Qld or NSW.

 

[nutwood]

I arrived around 6.45pm yesterday from Mel and they haven't contacted me. But they did ask me outright on arrival whether I had been in Qld or NSW.

I arrived Friday evening and they asked where I had come from but did not specifically ask about NSW. Perhaps that's the difference? You confirmed that you had not visited NSW, whereas I only confirmed I had not been overseas and had travelled from Tas. I could have been in NSW prior to Tas.
Tortuous but logical.

 

[jakeseven7]

Received a text from SA Health this afternoon requesting me to fill in an online form as "I may have travelled from NSW...".
Not sure where they got that from as I arrived from Melbourne, ex Tasmania and that was carefully recorded when I arrived.
Perhaps they're being ultra cautious and contacting all arrivals, regardless?

Yawn, delete.

I was getting incessant messages from WA for weeks after one of my trips there so I reported them to spam watch (as didn’t have an easy way to unsubscribe ) and then called them up and demanded to be removed from their system and lodged an official complaint for fun on a lunch break one day when I was especially annoyed at our beloved state premiers.

Surprisingly I got an offical apology....

 

[pjm99au]

I flew into Adelaide tonight. They asked if I’d been in QLD in the last 14 days and then ran through all of the known contact places in Sydney for the security guard

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Early news from NSW ...from news.com.au


NSW has still recorded no new cases of coronavirus within the community since a hotel quarantine security guard tested positive for the virus late on Saturday.

The NSW Premier confirmed the news but confessed health officials may “never find the link” between a hotel quarantine worker and how he became infected with COVID-19, though it is likely from a returned traveller.

“We have to accept we may never find the link … similar to the Avalon cluster: we still don’t know,” Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Tuesday.

 

[jakeseven7]

Early news from NSW ...from news.com.au


NSW has still recorded no new cases of coronavirus within the community since a hotel quarantine security guard tested positive for the virus late on Saturday.

The NSW Premier confirmed the news but confessed health officials may “never find the link” between a hotel quarantine worker and how he became infected with COVID-19, though it is likely from a returned traveller.

“We have to accept we may never find the link … similar to the Avalon cluster: we still don’t know,” Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Tuesday.

Lucky our mystery case rule seems to be in the rubbish bin now (QLD)

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Early news from NSW ...from news.com.au


NSW has still recorded no new cases of coronavirus within the community since a hotel quarantine security guard tested positive for the virus late on Saturday.

The NSW Premier confirmed the news but confessed health officials may “never find the link” between a hotel quarantine worker and how he became infected with COVID-19, though it is likely from a returned traveller.

“We have to accept we may never find the link … similar to the Avalon cluster: we still don’t know,” Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Tuesday.

Though in this case dod they not at least link it to one traveller?

"While the source of the new case’s infection is still under investigation, genomic sequencing results received last night show a match to the viral strain of a COVID-positive returned traveller who was in the Softitel Wentworth quarantine hotel while infectious.

The genome sequencing results indicate the strain found in the hotel quarantine guest and security guard is the more transmissible B1.1.7 variant of the virus (also known as the UK variant)."


Whereas the Avolon cluster which popped up in multiple unlinked chains was never directly linked. Personally I suspect that was from USA aircrew who at that time were often ignoring the isolation rules and who went out to public sites.


Personally too I think we need to stop freaking out when a hq case happens. Just keep up the surveillance testing and second ring every new case. Though yes NSW Health does seem to have been very slow in this case and the hq employment practices do seem to be very questionable.



Remember too that with CV19 that not everyone spreads it equally. Some people just generate much higher viral loads and are more contagious. It would not surprise me if some of these leaks are caused by such superspreaders. This includes nebuliser man as the device increased his ability to tramsit by aerosolising his exhalations.

 

[drron]

Though even though the Sydney HQ case might have been infected by a superspreader he almost certainly won't be one.He had his first dose of vaccine a few days before and at the original presser to announce the case it was said he had a low viral count.Therefore as I said unlikely to be a superspreader.

 

[Lynda2475]

Personally too I think we need to stop freaking out when a hq case happens. Just keep up the surveillance testing and second ring every new case. Though yes NSW Health does seem to have been very slow in this case and the hq employment practices do seem to be very questionable.

No one freaking out that I can see. But 2nd ring won't happen, it's not policy in NSW and no real support for it here (also not happening in Brisbane)..close contacts have been identified and tested venue warnings posted - no further cases to date, doesn't warrant larger lockdowns.

With employment we need to understand whether the guard lied to his primary employer about working in HQ or vice versa. As I posted yesterday anyone working in a NSW office has to declare before entry whether they have symptoms or have been to a venue with positive cases. Either primary employer wasn't doing the daily questions or employee wasn't truthful re working in a venue with positive cases when presenting for work at their office. I'd like to see no casual staff used , so HQ aren't working second jobs, but even with that rule HQ workers are still in the community shopping etc.

Im not sure why you consider NSW to have been slow, exposure sites published same day case was announced.

The guard contracted Covid on shift (did not test positive that day), returned a week later for next shift totally asymptomatic and was found positive.

It would be great if workers had take home saliva tests to test on non hq work days but they don't.

 

[dajop]

The ongoing spread to HQ workers (albeit very infrequently) does reinforce my view that the media witch-hunt into the Andrews government. “who made the decision” (to employ private security) was completely misdirected whereas the real scrutiny should have been directed to why was DHHS such a mess... aaah hindsight.

 

[Gremlin]

No one freaking out that I can see. But 2nd ring won't happen, it's not policy in NSW and no real support for it here (also not happening in Brisbane)..close contacts have been identified and tested venue warnings posted - no further cases to date, doesn't warrant larger lockdowns.

Bold bit is incorrect. My cousin is currently on Day 3 of her 14 day iso as a second ring contact. You are correct that it has not happened in NSW though.

 

[Must...Fly!]

The ongoing spread to HQ workers (albeit very infrequently) does reinforce my view that the media witch-hunt into the Andrews government. “who made the decision” (to employ private security) was completely misdirected whereas the real scrutiny should have been directed to why was DHHS such a mess... aaah hindsight.

Well, that was the general gist of the accusations and why the government set up the inquiry. However, despite it's authority it was unable to determine who decided what, or who was responsible for making decisions at various levels.