COVID-positive NSW removalist worked in SA
A man infected with COVID-19 travelled from NSW into Victoria and then South Australia for his job as a removalist at the weekend before testing positive, the Victorian Government says – adding that it expects families and contacts with exposure sites to face quarantine.
(AAP Image/David Mariuz)
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley this morning said NSW Health alerted their Victorian counterparts about the case late on Sunday night.
The man stayed overnight in Victoria on Thursday, July 8 before driving into South Australia and returning to NSW on Saturday, July 10.
“We do understand there will be families that will have likely have been exposed and we’re talking to them,” Foley told reporters in Melbourne.
“We do understand there will be a number of exposure sites in both Victoria and South Australia.”
InDaily contacted SA Health this morning to ask about potential exposure sites in South Australia, and was told that Premier Steven Marshall would give an update at a scheduled 1pm press conference.
Foley said his department is in contact with NSW’s department to get the full list of exposure sites in Victoria, and confirmed his understanding was multiple homes where the removalist worked would be affected.
“We expect there will be exposure sites, we expect people will be required to quarantine as a result of that,” he said.
“We do understand that there will be families that will likely have been exposed.”
Removalists are permitted workers under Victoria’s border permit system.
Foley said Victorian Health are seeking to conduct their own contact tracing interview after receiving the information from NSW Health.
“Initial conversations late last night indicated an infectious period in Victoria and South Australia,” he said.
The man’s infection was recorded in NSW’s daily COVID-19 numbers, according to Foley.
NSW recorded another 112 new cases of COVID-19 today, marking the worst day of the Greater Sydney outbreak to date.
Of the 112 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, at least 46 were out in the community for part or all of their infectious period.
“Family or close friends, unfortunately, bear the brunt of those 112 we have seen overnight,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday.
“If you put yourself at risk, you’re putting your entire family – and that means extended family, as well as your closest friends and associates – at risk.”
NSW has now recorded almost 680 COVID-19 cases in the community since June 16, when the Bondi cluster first emerged.
Some 18 COVID-19 patients in NSW are in intensive care, with four ventilated.
More to come
-With AAP
