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Quarantined travellers evacuated from SA hotel after toddler’s infection

People leaving the Peppers Waymouth Hotel on Friday.

People leaving the Peppers Waymouth Hotel on Friday. Photo: ABC

An entire floor of an Adelaide medi-hotel has been evacuated after a toddler who had been on the same level tested positive for coronavirus.

On Thursday, the two-year-old was taken to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and discharged to Tom’s Court Hotel, for travellers who test positive for COVID-19.

The boy had been staying with his family at the Peppers Waymouth Hotel in the Adelaide CBD.

His mother also tested positive for the virus, an SA Health notice to staff said.

On Friday morning, guests on the same floor as the family were moved by bus to the Pullman Hotel – another medi-hotel for travellers needing to quarantine.

All 18 will have to restart their 14-day quarantine.

An SA Health spokesperson said the guests were moved because of fears of a possible risk of transmission after the toddler spent longer in a hallway at the hotel than expected while being tested.

The SA Health staff update, obtained by the ABC, said there were difficulties with “a number of factors including identity checks, language barriers and the child’s distress”.

The mother and toddler “may have potentially spread COVID-19 into a corridor as part of the swabbing process”, SA Health said.

About 150 people will arrive in Adelaide about 1pm on Friday, aboard the first direct flight into the city from India since a travel ban on the nation was lifted.

The repatriated Australians on the Qantas flight will do two weeks of hotel quarantine at the Pullman.

They will have daily saliva tests on top of swab tests on days one, five, nine and 13.

An SA Health press conference at 12pm (ACST) is expected to provide more detail on the evacuation from Peppers medi-hotel.

sa hotel quarantine

Guests arrive at the Pullman hotel after being moved from the Peppers Waymouth Hotel. Photo: ABC

Crows accused of not wearing masks

The Adelaide Football Club has asked the AFL to investigate a claim that several Crows players and staff ignored a request to wear masks on a flight back from Sydney.

An AFL spokesman said the organisation was aware of the matter and was “looking into it”.

The Crows went down to Richmond by 28 points on Sunday in a game that was shifted to Sydney amid Melbourne’s deepening coronavirus outbreak.

A caller to radio station Triple M who was on the same flight home as Adelaide players and staff said that, upon boarding, passengers were told by airline staff to wear their masks.

But she said that “as soon as” Crows players were instructed to do that, she saw several take them off.

“It was complete disregard for the welfare of everyone on board,” the caller said.

“The stewards actually asked them to put them on – that was a requirement of the SA government – yet they just didn’t comply with it.

“They had this giant slogan: ‘We fly as one’. And my attitude was ‘you fly as one’, we’re all getting your bad air as well.”

In a statement, the club said it acknowledged the “government requirement for people to wear masks in airports and on all domestic commercial flights to minimise the risk of transmission of COVID-19”.

“Our coaches, players and staff understand it is a privilege to be playing football during these times, as well as the need to adhere to protocols and guidance from health authorities,” the club said.

“The club is fully cooperating with the league and awaits the findings of the investigation.”

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