New South Wales health authorities are investigating concerns that Covid-19 circulating in the Sydney community has infiltrated hotel quarantine rooms and infected otherwise healthy returning travellers.
The investigation was triggered after a child who flew from Mexico to Australia in late July tested positive for coronavirus 36 hours after leaving quarantine. Genomic sequencing confirmed it was Sydney’s Delta strain.
The 18-month-old girl had tested negative five times previously, once before departing Mexico and four time during their quarantine stay at the Meriton Suites in North Ryde.
Given the short time the toddler spent in the community – in an area with few cases – experts say it is more likely she caught it while in hotel quarantine.
NSW Health officials are now interviewing medical staff and studying CCTV footage from within the special health accommodation facility, which is used to quarantine both local Covid cases who don’t require hospitalisation as well as returned international travellers.
While Covid has previously leaked out of quarantine into the Australian community, there have been no reported cases of a Covid strain circulating within the Australian community spreading to a returned travelling in quarantine.
The child’s father Misha, who did not want the family’s last name used, is furious at health authorities for placing his daughter Ada, along with her mother, and two siblings, in accommodation surrounded by active Covid cases.
The family had been given permission to travel to attend to a family health issue in Mexico, and had to secure plane tickets back to Australia as well as provide negative Covid tests before boarding their flights.
They were taken to Meriton Suites days after it was closed to the public and repurposed as a special facility in response to an “urgent need” for extra health accommodation following a recent surge in cases.
After his family received their final negative tests, Misha, who had stayed in Australia, made the short drive from their house in Roseville to pick up his wife and three children from the hotel at about 11pm on Tuesday 3 August, and took them home to sleep.
The family reduced their movement in the roughly 36 hours between leaving quarantine and getting tested again on the morning of Thursday 5 August.
Ada’s test came back positive on Friday morning, while the rest of the family tested negative. When they were tested again later day, her result indicated a growing viral load.
“At first they tried to palm it off and said it must have been caught in Mexico, but after the second test, they said it’s not dying down, which would indicate it didn’t come from Mexico,” Misha said.
“Only after they genomically sequenced it did they tell us it was the Sydney Delta strain.
“She just couldn’t have contracted it in the community, she hasn’t been in contact with anyone. No one has touched or spoken to her or been in a car with her.”
Her sister, three-year-old Noam, has since tested positive as well. The family continues to isolate at home together as required, and Misha believes it’s inevitable they will all eventually test positive for Covid.
Misha said he understands the need for the family to continue isolating, but questioned why Australia was not using home quarantine for returned travellers.
“Let’s talk about ankle bracelets at home instead, because that seems safer to me than putting returned travellers, who have had to test negative to get into Australia anyway, in hotels that could become super spreaders because of ventilation and Covid patients in other rooms.”
Prof Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician at the Australian National University, said the incubation period for Covid was on average about five days but could be less for Delta.
“If genomic sequencing showed it’s identical to what’s circulating in Sydney, and the dad [Misha] is negative, and the child didn’t interact with anyone, given the time between leaving quarantine and getting tested, it would appear that this particular case has been acquired in the hotel, or upon leaving.”
Collignon suggested that given her age Ada may have touched surfaces lower down in their quarantine room that had not been touched by her family and that could have transmitted Covid.
While Misha insists his daughter had “zero contact with anyone” outside the family after leaving quarantine, a NSW Health spokesperson said investigations, which included CCTV monitoring and staff interviews, had not concluded.
“Comprehensive, ongoing investigations into the source of Covid-19 infection for this case have not yet identified transmission within the special health accommodation,” they said.
The spokesperson confirmed that after being “medically discharged” from the health hotel, “the patient was identified to have the Delta strain currently circulating in the Sydney community”.
They said while health accommodation was primarily for confirmed Covid cases, it could also be used for returned travellers who had “complex” needs not able to be met in police-managed hotels. However, Misha claims the family was never told why they were not placed in a standard hotel quarantine facility.
Guardian Australia understands health authorities have been inundated with demand to expand the capacity of its special health accommodation, with a health system source describing the system as being “like field hospitals for Covid patients” to prevent further exposure within hospitals.