Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to announce a snap lockdown of the state today, as Melbourne’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine cluster grows to 13.
Victoria’s health department confirmed two new cases late yesterday. Both are persons living with someone who had previously tested positive and are already isolating.
A Melbourne airport cafe has been added to the list of exposure sites connected to the Holiday Inn outbreak at Melbourne airport.
Yesterday, a female manager at the hotel and two men – both partners of female food and beverage attendants at the hotel – tested positive to COVID-19.
The outbreak forced the closure of the Holiday Inn earlier this week.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, said authorities suspected the cases were linked to the use of a nebuliser – a medical device that vaporises medication or liquid into a fine mist – by a hotel guest.
“If that’s breathed in and someone is infectious or later tests positive, then that picks up the virus and then that mist can be suspended in the air with very fine aerosolised particles,” Professor Sutton said.
COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria commissioner, Emma Cassar, said the guest had not reported the nebuliser when arriving at the hotel, and would have been taken to a medi-hotel if they had.
