A woman who contracted the mutant UK strain of COVID-19 and flew into Brisbane from Melbourne after clearing hotel quarantine has since tested positive to the virus again, prompting an urgent public health response. Under the previous national protocols, the girl was allowed to depart after 10 days in hotel quarantine and didn’t must return a negative test before doing so. But because authorities are so concerned about this new strain, those rules have now been changed. Here’s what we all know thus far.
What can we fathom this case?
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the lady flew into Melbourne from the united kingdom on December 26 and tested positive every day later. She spent 10 days in hotel quarantine, “cleared all her symptoms and was allowed to go away Victoria”, Dr Young said. The woman caught flight JQ570 from Melbourne to Brisbane, arriving at 11:00 pm on January 5. She then travelled to her parents’ house in Maleny, on the Sunshine Coast. Dr Young said Victorian authorities alerted their Queensland counterparts the girl had tested positive to the united kingdom variant.
She was retested in Queensland on Friday and located to still be positive.
It’s worth noting that authorities say she poses an awfully low risk and that they contact tracing out of an abundance of caution due to this new strain.
So why was she allowed to depart hotel quarantine? Until recently, people that tested positive to COVID-19 while in hotel quarantine could leave once they’d no symptoms for 3 days, and a minimum of 10 days had passed since they delivered the positive test.
That’s in contrast to the mandatory 14 days — supported the life cycle of the virus — in situ for travellers who don’t contract the virus. That was under guidelines from the disease Network Australia, which Victoria and other states and territories had followed. Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said the person wasn’t infectious when she left the Victorian quarantine system.
She was cleared on day 10 of hotel quarantine after showing no symptoms for 3 days. “That was totally in line with both Australian national and international standards and protocols,” Mr Foley said. Under those old guidelines, which were in situ since March 21, travellers with a gentle case of COVID-19 failed to must return a negative test before leaving hotel quarantine.
One of the explanations for that’s those who have contracted the virus can still test positive to COVID-19 after they need to be passed their infectious period, in a very process called “shedding”.
Why are authorities worried? The woman who left Melbourne contracted the identical UK strain because the Brisbane hotel quarantine cleaner — whose positive result has sent Greater Brisbane into a three-day lockdown and seen borders slammed shut across the country.
Research estimates the united kingdom variation may be up to 70 per cent more infectious than other strains, and authorities fear transmission may well be hard to manage if it gets into the community.
“We must assume that this strain will become the dominant strain and it’s important to stay reassessing our settings, keep staying vigilant,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Queensland’s Dr Young said the chance of the girl passing on the virus was very low, and “with a traditional variant we might not be as concerned”.
The UK strain is simply one among a variety of recent variants of COVID-19 that appears to be more transmissible and so more concerning to authorities.
“We are seeing the emergence worldwide of variety of strains and, with travel, they’re not the united kingdom strain or the South African strain,” New South Wales Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said. “It is vital that we board a worldwide world so all returning travellers are at increased risk of getting one in every one of these mutations.”
Dr Chant did clarify that there was at this stage no evidence the new strain behaved any differently to the dominant strain when it came to being cleared of the virus, but authorities were taking no chances.
What rules are changing as these new strains emerge? The guidelines from the disease Network Australia are updated to advise anyone who tests positive for the mutant UK strain to quarantine for the complete 14 days from the onset of symptoms. In Victoria, those changes came into effect on Epiphany, each day after the girl discussed on Saturday flew into Queensland.
Dr Chant said the recommendation now included giving people a PCR test at the top of their isolation period to indicate they’re not infectious.
“Now, it’s important to notice that some people still can have remnants of the virus for a protracted time, so we’ll use an expert panel to confirm we aren’t releasing cases that are infectious which would require more intensive testing if anyone still remains PCR-positive,” she said.
Dr Chant said out of an “abundance of precaution”, NSW authorities had also updated an inventory of exposure sites that someone who was previously cleared of a mutant strain had visited.
“We’re taking a really precautionary role as we study this disease,” she said. Friday’s National Cabinet meeting saw a variety of other rules tightened to protect Australia against the strains.
International passenger caps are reduced, masks are now mandatory in airports and on planes, tests are going to be compulsory before and after international flights and there’ll be daily tests for hotel quarantine workers.
The increased testing for quarantine staff was already in situ in Victoria, which has dramatically overhauled its system within the wake of the state’s deadly second wave. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said daily testing being introduced in his state was “an important revolution, particularly to manage the increased issues associated with these new variants”.