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NSW Health investigating possible COVID-19 transmission inside Sydney quarantine hotel

Three returned travellers from two families at the Mercure Hotel have been confirmed with COVID.

Three returned travellers from two families at the Mercure Hotel have been confirmed with COVID. Photo: Mercure Hotel

New South Wales Health is investigating whether COVID-19 has spread inside a second Sydney quarantine hotel.

Three returned travellers from two families have tested positive for the same viral sequence of coronavirus first identified in South Africa.

They were staying in adjacent rooms on the 10th floor at the Mercure Hotel on George Street in Sydney’s CBD.

NSW Health said the travellers had tested negative on their day-two swabs in hotel quarantine, before subsequently testing positive for COVID-19 later during their quarantine periods.

They have been transferred to the Special Health Accommodation, where they will remain until no longer infectious.

Health officials are urgently contacting other overseas arrivals who were on the same floor between April 7 and 12.

Hotel staff are also being tested and self-isolating.

This latest incident comes just days after three people in one family acquired the virus from a family of four also staying in an adjacent room in the Adina Apartment Hotel Town Hall.

The two families were also diagnosed with the same viral sequence and health officials said the family of four had been infectious between Thursday, April 8 and Sunday, April 11.

At the time, health officials said they had arrived on different days and from different countries.

More to come

ABC

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