22.04.2021
1 min read

Fears of COVID transmission between rooms at Mercure Hotel in Sydney hotel quarantine

Health authorities are urgently investigating after three returned travellers contracted the same strain of COVID-19 inside the facility.

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COVID-19 has jumped across rooms in a Sydney hotel quarantine facility, with three people contracting the same strain of the virus.

NSW Health said in a statement on Wednesday that the three travellers have come down with the South African COVID-19 variant.

Two of the three were family members and stayed in connecting rooms on the 10th floor of the Mercure Hotel on George St in Sydney’s CBD, while the third person was staying in another adjacent room.

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The three people arrived on the same flight on April 3.

NSW Health said it was now contacting returned travellers who had been staying on the same floor of the hotel between April 7 and April 12.

Mercure Hotel on George St. Credit: Mercure Hotel

Those people will be directed to get tested and self-isolate until 14 days after they left quarantine at the Mercure Hotel, as will relevant hotel staff.

NSW recorded zero new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday, as well as eight cases in hotel quarantine.

The state government completed more than 3700 vaccinations over that time.

Health authorities also said that a separate case of COVID-19 transmission between hotel rooms at the Adina Apartment Hotel at Town Hall was ongoing, and all contacts located to date have tested negative.

One COVID-19 patient in NSW is currently in intensive care and on a ventilator.