Covid 19 coronavirus: Cluster at Sydney isolation hotel

Staff at a Sydney quarantine hotel are self-isolating and undergoing testing after three Covid-19 cases first thought to have been acquired overseas were found to have instead been acquired in hotel quarantine.

NSW Health officials said on Sunday the three cases in the one family of returned travellers were previously reported as overseas acquired, but have now been reclassified to locally acquired, following transmission in hotel quarantine.

No local cases were reported in the state overnight, however NSW Health said the three people from the same family are believed to have been infected with COVID-19 by a family of four staying in an adjacent room in the Adina Apartment Hotel Town Hall in Sydney.

The families arrived in Australia on different days, from different countries.

It is believed the family of four were infectious at the Adina hotel between Thursday, April 8 and Sunday, April 11.

The family of four was moved to Specialist Health Accomodation on April 11.

Contact tracers confirmed the two families were diagnosed with the same viral sequence.

It has prompted NSW Health to investigate how the transmission occurred between adjacent rooms while all staff who worked on level 12 have been put in self-isolation and are undergoing testing.

All guests staying on the floor 12 were retested and returned negative results.

Both families have been taken to Special Health Accommodation to be treated until they are no longer infectious.

Meanwhile, there were 550 Covid-19 vaccines administered in New South Wales overnight, bringing the state's total to 173,852.

There are 67 active cases of coronavirus, including one person who who is seriously unwell in the intensive care unit.

NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

Three cases in one family previously reported as overseas acquired have been reclassified as locally acquired following transmission in hotel quarantine. pic.twitter.com/fQkJ2ymUu1

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 18, 2021