Victoria has declared parts of WA will become “red zones” overnight as a Melbourne man who caught COVID in a Perth quarantine hotel sends hundreds of Victorians into isolation.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer has declared that the Perth metropolitan area and Peel region in Western Australia will become red zones (other than for transit) under Victoria’s “traffic light” travel permit system from 2:01am Victorian time on Saturday, April 24.
The Chief Health Officer tweeted that Victorians in these areas must follow local directions. “If they leave to enter Victoria while red zones are in effect, they must quarantine at home for 14 days.
“If non-Victorians in red zones enter Victoria, they will stay in Hotel Quarantine until a return flight is arranged.”
Additionally, if you are currently in Victoria and have been in the Perth metropolitan area and Peel region (other than for transit) between 17 April and 23 April inclusive, you must isolate, get a test within 72 hours, and stay isolated until you receive a negative result, according to the CHO.
Hundreds of Victorians were on Friday night forced into isolation after a passenger infected with COVID-19 landed at Melbourne Airport.
The man caught the virus in a quarantine hotel in Perth after being in China and then flew to Melbourne while positive.
Last night the case plunged Perth into a three-day lockdown after it was revealed the man moved around the city and the Peel region for four days with coronavirus.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer has declared that the Perth metropolitan area and Peel region in Western Australia will become red zones (other than for transit) under Victoria’s “traffic light” travel permit system from 2:01am Victorian time on Saturday, April 24.
Contact tracers are scrambling to track and test all 257 passengers on the man’s flight. Senior health sources last night told the Saturday Herald Sun authorities were preparing for a worst-case scenario as the national medical expert panel held crisis talks about the situation.
It is Victoria’s first community case of COVID-19 in eight weeks.
All 257 passengers on-board the April 21 flight QF778 have been ordered to get tested and isolate for 14 days.
Anyone who was at Melbourne Airport Terminal One between 6.30pm and 7.30pm on April 21 has also been ordered to isolate, get tested and remain isolated until they get a negative result.
The returned traveller, in his 50s, travelled to Melbourne after returning from Shanghai and completing two weeks of hotel quarantine in Perth.
Western Australian authorities alerted the man that he had been identified as a close contact upon touching down at Melbourne airport.
The father of two was understood to have worn a mask while at Melbourne Airport and was picked up by his spouse and immediately taken to his eastern suburbs home.
It is understood he went directly from the airport to his home, and didn’t leave except to undergo a COVID-19 test because he felt unwell. He returned a positive test at 2am on Friday after he had already been transferred to the Holiday Inn Flinders health hotel at his own request.
It’s not yet known if any of his family members had been out in the community. But his spouse, two children and a friend of one child have all been identified as close contacts. They were instructed to immediately get tested and quarantine for a full 14 days.
The results of their tests are not yet known.
WA premier Mark McGowan sent Perth into lockdown in response to the outbreak. It will see more than 40 Anzac Day services cancelled across the city and Saturday’s AFL match between Fremantle and North Melbourne played in front of an empty stadium.
Mr McGowan said the Melbourne traveller had completed his quarantine in an “adjacent” room of a confirmed positive case on the sixth floor of the Mercure Hotel in Perth. He was located in the room alongside an infectious family from the UK, and opposite an infectious couple from India.
The man returned a negative result on day 12 of hotel quarantine and was released on April 17. He spent four days in Perth before leaving to Melbourne on April 21.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley on Friday morning said it was too early to say whether the virus had spread in the community.
The outbreak comes as the state government flagged banning travellers from India from entering Victoria, as the Indian subcontinent faces a drastic coronavirus emergency.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison slashed the number of arrivals from India by a third and banned travel other than in “very urgent circumstances”.
India recorded 314,835 cases on Thursday, the worst single-day case increase in any country since the pandemic began.
Direct flights from the country land in Sydney and the Northern Territory, and Mr Morrison said the federal government would work with the states and territory leaders to strengthen the measures if necessary.
Mr Foley said Victoria may impose stricter measures with people from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan “disproportionately overrepresented” in Victoria’s quarantine program.
“It is perfectly available to Australia to look at what other mitigation measures we can take to manage that,” he said.
COVID-19 cases in Australia’s hotel quarantine system linked to India have jumped from 10 per cent to 40 per cent since January.
Nancy Baxter, from the University of Melbourne School of Global Health and Population Research, said allowing international travellers into Australia involved balancing risks and benefits.
“Right now there is a higher risk travellers from India will have been infected with COVID and develop it even after testing negative before departure than travellers coming from many countries, plus there are some new variants that are now in circulation in India that we don’t know much about,” she said.
“We have a serious problem with transmissions at these hotels and that needs to be acknowledged and addressed.
WA PLUNGED INTO THREE DAY LOCKDOWN
Western Australia will enter a three-day lockdown after a recent outbreak at a hotel in Perth.
The lockdown begins midnight Friday until midinght on Monday and people can only leave home for work, shopping for essentials, medical needs, compassionate requirements, or exercise with a maximum of four people, limited to one hour each day.
WA premier Mark McGowan said the Victorian man who tested positive for COVID was one of two in adjacent rooms to those who tested positive.
He was in Perth for five days before he left for Melbourne yesterday, and has already passed on coronavirus to one of his close contacts in Perth.
Mr McGowan contacted Prime Minister Scott Morrison and asked for the state’s international arrival cap be halved from 1,025 to 512 per week for the next month.
– Sue Dunlevy, Rhiannon Tuffield
INDIAN TRAVELLER BAN COULD BE ON CARDS
The state government hasn’t ruled out banning Indian travellers from entering Victoria, as the Indian subcontinent faces a drastic coronavirus emergency.
Mr Foley said the Victorian government supported the national cabinet decision to cut the number of flights from India, but said the state may look to take a tougher stance in future.
“It is perfectly available to Australia to look at what other mitigation measures we can take to manage that,” he said on Friday.
It comes as India reported a global record of 314,000 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, which is the world’s biggest single-day rise since the pandemic began.
Mr Foley said Victoria, along with a number of other jurisdictions, had raised concerns around the high level of infections in hotel quarantine.
He said people from the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh and Pakistan, were “disproportionately overrepresented” in Victoria’s quarantine program.
“The purpose of quarantining is to establish if people have what it is you’re looking for. What we are now seeing is increasing levels of people, originating from the (Indian) subcontinent, as the virus spreads at record levels in India,” Mr Foley said.
Mr Foley said the matter was a “necessary public health conversation”, and added that the Victorian government would continue to monitor the quarantine program closely.
“We’ve seen other jurisdictions, (including the UK and New Zealand), put a pause on any arrivals from the Indian subcontinent, as they reach record levels of pandemic spread … Victoria shared those concerns at national cabinet (and) we still have those concerns,” he said.
“Just like the Prime Minister has not ruled out taking further measures, we strongly support that.”
Mitchell.clarke@news.com.au