Victoria had recorded 73 days straight of zero locally acquired Covid cases. Photo / Getty Images
Victoria had recorded 73 days straight of zero locally acquired Covid cases. Photo / Getty Images
A Victorian man has been confirmed as Covid-19 positive after arriving home in Melbourne after completing hotel quarantine in South Australia.
The man, in his 30s, returned to Australia from India on April 19 and undertook hotel quarantine in the Playford Hotel in Adelaide's CBD.
"My understanding is the gentleman departed India via the Maldives via Singapore into Adelaide," Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
The man arrived in Victoria and returned to his home in Wollert on May 4, developing symptoms four days later. He got tested on Monday and returned a positive result on Tuesday.
The new case means the state's run of 74 days without any local coronavirus cases has now been broken.
Foley said the man was isolating at home and that his three primary household primary contacts had returned a negative test result.
"Preparatory actions were well under way should any of them have tested positive," he said, noting that further details would be shared publicly as they came to hand.
The Victorian health department said a "full public health response" was underway and that it was working with interstate counterparts to determine the source of infection.
Nicola Spurrier, South Australia's chief health officer, said today that one hypothesis is that the man was exposed to the virus before entering South Australia and experienced a "very, very long incubation period".
The other possibility, she said, is the man caught the virus while undergoing hotel quarantine.
"People are aware that this has happened in other hotels in other states," Spurrier said. "This is obviously right at the top of our mind in seeing whether this could have happened here in South Australia."
Spurrier confirmed the man was in a room adjacent from an infected returned traveller, with concerns the virus may have somehow leaked out and caused a transmission event within the quarantine facility.
Victoria's new case comes after employees at a Melbourne CBD health business were sent home on Tuesday morning as a precaution, following a Covid-19 scare, the Herald Sun reports.
The workers at Citadel Health at 459 Collins St were told to go home and work from there, with the company liaising with the health department, the newspaper said.
Australia's health department is urging anyone with Covid-19 symptoms, such as fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, chills or sweats, or a change in sense of smell or taste, to immediately get tested.
The department said on Tuesday it will release a list of potential exposure sites once they are verified.
