A Woolworths employee sparked a health scare yesterday after he tested positive for coronavirus while quarantining in Melbourne but was allowed to return to Sydney.
The man tested positive after flying into Melbourne from Bangladesh on June 11, but was cleared to be released from the hotel quarantine after 14 days inside.
He then flew from Melbourne to Sydney and went to work for two days last weekend, in the self-service part of Balmain Woolworths.
He has since had another COVID-19 test which returned positive again.
So how did this all happen?
Why he was allowed out of hotel
Under the national guidelines, there is no requirement that a person who has tested positive for coronavirus while in hotel quarantine has to return a negative result before they're allowed to leave.
"We do not necessarily test everyone to get them for clearance," NSW chief medical officer Kerry Chant said.
"We know that people can have remnants of the virus for eight weeks, the virus is dead, not infectious."
UNSW Virologist Sacha Stelzer-Braid agreed that the virus "in different people can hang around for different amounts of time".
But that doesn't mean they were contagious.
For people to be deemed non-infectious, it must be 10 days since the onset of symptoms and the person must have been symptom-free for three days.
In this case, the man was deemed recovered by Melbourne health care workers, but information from NSW Health suggested he had persisting symptoms.
"There's a bit of difference there in terms of the information which we are trying to reconcile," Dr Chant said.
Is the man a health risk?
When the man worked his first shift at Balmain Woolworths, it had been 13 days since he began showing symptoms of coronavirus.
"The level of virus is very, very low," Dr Chant said.
"And what this may reflect is the tail end of the infection."
Dr Stelzer-Braid said the testing regime identified even the smallest presence of the virus in a person's system.
"It's picking up parts of viral genome but that doesn't mean the virus is infectious," she said.
"We've got be cautious but the risk of someone else contracting is low."
Dr Chant insisted all steps that have been taken in regard to this case were "precautionary".
Testing in hotel quarantine
Testing is now mandatory for all people in hotel quarantine in NSW and Victoria, regardless of symptoms.
In NSW, every returned traveller must be tested at 10 days — in Victoria it's day 11.
If the person doesn't comply, under new rules they are forced to spend a further 10 days in hotel quarantine.
But this rule was introduced over the weekend — prior to this, testing was not enforced, only expected.
The difference between states
If a person tests positive for coronavirus while in quarantine in NSW, they don't remain in that hotel.
They are moved to another hotel specifically for those who are infectious.
These designated hotels are for people not ill enough for hospital care, but they are managed by health workers from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
In Victoria, people who test positive remain at their current place of quarantine in isolation, while contracted security guards oversee the operation
But in NSW, police and the defence force run quarantine at hotels, with the help of security guards.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiaGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA3LTAzL3Bvc2l0aXZlLWNvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNhc2UtZmxldy1mcm9tLW5zdy10by12aWMtaGVyZXMtd2h5LzEyNDE3MTg20gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyNDE3MTg2?oc=5
2020-07-02 21:04:09Z
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